Testimonial
Where do I begin? I have spent the last 30 years of my life being obese and thinking that I would never see myself thin, as most of us may have thought...but all of that changed for me on March 20, 2003; the day that I met Dr. Anderson, Jamie, and Jennifer...These are three of the greatest people I have ever met and their commitment to the patients and their well-being is so awesome! I have never met a staff more ready or more willing to answer questions or do everything in their power to meet the needs of the patient.

It is not a coincidence that Jamie and I met...I work at West End United Methodist Church in Nashville, TN as a paid section leader for the choir, and the day of my pre-op testing I went into the office to talk with Jamie or Jennifer about any last minute questions that I might have and I heard this voice from around the corner say, "Is he going to sing for us?" I thought, who in this office knows that I am a singer, and that is when I met and got to know Jamie, who is an angel sent from God!! She said, "You do not know who I am, but I know who you are because I have heard you sing at West End." You know, it really is a small world and God does put people in our lives for a reason, and that was the case with Dr. Anderson, Jamie, and Jennifer. I recently asked Jamie, "Why did you not come up to me after Church and say to me that you could help me", and she said, "because I was afraid that I would hurt your feelings or put you in an awkward position." I told her that it would not have hurt my feelings, but would instead let me know that she cared and could help.

Even at 483.8 pounds, there was not much that I would let stop me...I went back to school in 1995 and received my bachelor of music in Church music from Carson-Newman College, and now I am in the last stages of my Master of Music in Vocal performance at Belmont University here in Nashville. I have always lived a very active life and was always on the go, but I still could not keep my weight under control, but now Dr. Anderson has given me a new lease on life and for that I will be ever indebted to him. I felt that God had blessed me with a voice to do his work and that if I did not get this area of my life under control, I would not be around to share with others the awesomeness of God and what he could do in my life and the lives of others. One of my favorite scripture verses of all time comes from Philippians 1:3-6, and states, "And I am sure that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ." It took me a while to understand that all things created by God were special because I had spent so much time thinking about how terrible I was because I could not get this area of my life under control. I could not understand how I could be so disciplined about my music, but not about my weight. I finally realized that it was not a matter of discipline, but that I had a disease and no amount of discipline could change that!

So again, thank you to Dr. Anderson, Jamie, and Jennifer for being the awesome and loving people you are and for giving me a new and better life than ever before! God bless you always in all you do!!