"It's time for me now to make that lifestyle change."

Hi, my name is Gerald. I work with Dr. Hidalgo here in Puerto Vallarta with the weight loss team. I'm 45 years old, and I've been overweight most of my life. As a child, me and my sister would actually sneak off and go get candy whenever we could. My parents always kept us on a healthy diet to try to keep us at a manageable weight, but we really liked sweets, me and my sister. And so for my whole life, I've always been overweight. I've always been large. Today, I actually weigh around 420 pounds. The big thing is now I have a four-year old at home, and with a four-year old, I want to play with him. I want to grow up and see them get old, and so he needs me, and I want to be here for him. That's just the beginning of my story. Almost 18 years ago, my parents tried to help me lose weight, and I first had a lap band surgery. My parents were there, and they got me the lap band surgery. I weighed almost 600 pounds. The surgeon was new into the bariatrics field and was not so experienced at the time, and I was left with a large scar on my belly. My lap band surgery failed. It was considered a failure because I didn't reach goal. I lost a lot of weight. I lost almost 200 pounds, but then I gained some of it back. It's considered a failure because you don't reach your goal weight. For me, having weight loss surgery again, it's not an easy decision to make. I have a lot of fear. There's fear and there's unknown. It's the same fear that you or I or anybody else who's having surgery may have. It's time for me now to make that lifestyle change and for me to have weight loss surgery. Now, I'm contemplating having gastric bypass or gastric sleeve surgery with Dr. Hidalgo here in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The reason I don't know which one is because of the scar that was left on my stomach, and we don't know how difficult the lap band removal's going to be. There are some unknowns. I know which surgery I want. I know which surgery I'd prefer. But if I ended up with a gastric sleeve or a gastric bypass, either one, I will be happy. I am ready to eat to live and I'm ready to fuel my body and give my chance to enjoy my son, my wife and new life after surgery. So after the last 18 years, I've helped thousands and thousands of patients have their weight loss surgeries done here in Mexico. It's now my turn. I invite you to follow me on this journey through video chapters that we'll be recording and come with me on my experience with my weight loss surgery here in Mexico with Dr. Hidalgo.