Changing Course Young: Teen Bariatric Surgery Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe weight-loss surgery in the teenage years. Most writers had a gastric sleeve at fifteen to eighteen; others had a bypass, and one had a band that slipped and was later replaced. What brought them there includes type 2 diabetes before a driving permit, sore knees, a breathing machine at night, irregular periods and PCOS, and wanting to play rugby or swim again. Parents, a grandmother raising her grandson, a convenience-store father and a mother of four working nights tell their side. They write from Columbus to Dublin, Pune, Kuwait City, Cape Town and Nairobi. They describe two years on waiting lists, psychologists' questions, insurance that said no three times, a family raising the money themselves, and grandmothers who equated food with love. Daily life follows: going back to school after two weeks, pizza with the dance team, braai Sundays, cooking for one in a dorm, gym class without dread, and friends who stayed or drifted. Several are frank about what went wrong, from hair loss, gallstones, reflux and dumping syndrome to forgotten vitamins, a thirteen-day hospital stay, a second operation, a plateau and an eating problem surgery could not fix. A peer mentor and a writer five years on describe the long run.

Who it's for

For teenagers weighing weight-loss surgery, and for the parents, grandparents and siblings who sit beside them through assessments, the operation and the years of follow-up.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 243 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.