Page 36 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2016

PEOPLE LAP-BAND procedure HALFHERSIZE
Melissa Dubose sheds half her body weight and keeps it off with help from South Mississippi Surgical Weight Loss Center
story by Alexis Williams photos courtesy of Melissa Hope Dubose
Melissa Hope Dubose is half the woman she used to be. Dubose, a registered nurse and mother from Laurel, was always an average size teenager, but as she got older, the
weight began to pile on.
“When I had my daughter I got up to 240
pounds,” said Dubose. She tried diets like the Atkins diet and lost 40 pounds. “I also lost my gallbladder, thanks to all the fatty meats I ate on Atkins,” she adds.
Dubose says she maxed out at 262 pounds and was miserable. She took her daughter, Mikah, on vacation to Disney World and was out of breath and sweating the entire trip. Her family had a farm and enjoyed riding horses together. “My husband had gotten me a horse, and I couldn’t ride it because I couldn’t get on it,” she said.
After attending one of South Mississippi Surgi-
DR. WILLIAM AVARA, III
36 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • October 2016
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