Page 82 - South Mississippi Living - March, 2019

HEALTHY LIVING patience and perserverance JOURNEY
TO A NEW
Eric Shoemaker drops weight and adds to his family
story by Alexis Williams photos courtesy of Eric Shoemaker
ric Shoemaker’s two favorite words are patience and perseverance. Over the past few
years, he has had to practice both as he’s adopted two daughters and shed almost 200 pounds.
“Weight has been a factor for the majority of my life,” said Shoemaker, a 32-year-old Gulfport resident. Born with a Welms tumor, a cancer of the kidneys, he says he has had a lengthy medical history. “My parents wanted to make sure I was taken care of, and they fed me well. There was always a celebration and food was a big part.”
Due to cancer in his past, doctors steered him away from contact sports, so he joined Ocean Springs High School marching band and played the clarinet. “That
was my exercise,” he said. Admittedly a ‘band nerd,’ he met his wife Kristina when they were both in the band at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. He adds that they have both struggled with their weight as a couple.
They married and focused on their careers and fixing up their home in preparation for children. In June 2017 at 390 pounds, Shoemaker decided that he was ready to change the physical limitations of his life. He underwent gastric sleeve surgery at Singing River Hospital with Dr. Pete Avara.
Dr. Avara removed part of Shoemaker’s stomach and made the remainder ‘sleeve’ of his stomach smaller, helping him to eat less and ultimately lose the weight that was keeping him from being as active as he wanted to be. A year later, he and his wife adopted two sisters, Acelyn, now 7, and Chloe, now 5.
“Had I not taken care of me, I don’t know that I would be able to run around and take care of my kids,” Shoemaker said. “I didn’t have a lap for them to sit on. Being a bigger person, you have to work a little harder. Having the weight gone has helped me immensely.”
Shoemaker, who works as an IT instructor at MGCCC in Perkinston, currently weighs 240 pounds and has a goal to lose 40 more pounds by the two year anniversary
ABOVE LEFT: SHOEMAKER before seeing South Mississippi Surgical Weight Loss.
ABOVE RIGHT TOP: SHOEMAKER after his gastric sleeve surgery and losing nearly 200 pounds.
ABOVE RIGHT BOTTOM: The Shoemaker family.
of his surgery in June. He has not only shed weight, but also has been able to stop taking medication
he needed for diabetes. He believes the weight loss surgery was a big step in the right direction for his health and his family.
Life
DR. WILLIAM AVARA, III DR. JASON PAYNE DR. JOHN HALL
South Mississippi Surgical Weight Loss Center
1124 Oakleigh Road, Ocean Springs 228.872.7277 • www.smsurgicalweightloss.com
82 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • March 2019
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