It's All About Healing

God Opened a Path to Surgery and I Faced the Pain to Change My Life: Episode 371

• Robin Black

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A benefits email I almost deleted changed everything. After years of trying pills and plans, a new LTL job connected me to Kerum Health and Journey Lite—partners that covered my bariatric surgery, hotel, and even a stipend. I asked God for a sign in the hotel parking lot and turned straight into the brightest rainbow I’ve ever seen. That moment anchored me through the hardest 72 hours of my life.

We walk you through the exact pre-op hurdles, including why losing 30 pounds to shrink a fatty liver can make robotic surgery safer, and how a high-protein, low-calorie plan moved the scale fast. I share the surge of buyer’s remorse after waking up in excruciating pain, the nausea that only dissolved meds could calm, and the small sips and strict timing that kept me stable. You’ll hear the unfiltered truth about the spirometer every two hours, the switch from liquids to purees to solids, the shock of rapid weight loss, and the reality of loose skin and reflux that demand careful routines.

If you or someone you love is weighing bariatric surgery, this story gives you the practical playbook: protein targets (60–80 grams), hydration goals, measuring portions, spacing meals before sleep, and never skipping vitamins. It also offers the mindset shift that makes the journey sustainable—how faith, timing, and a supportive care team can carry you when willpower fades. I talk about emotional eating, shame, and why consistent check-ins with dietitians who’ve been through surgery make a difference. Press play for a candid look at pain, patience, and the grace to start over. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review with the one habit you’ll commit to this week.

©2022-2026 Soul Healer17:77, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Any copying of this poetry and audio in whole or part is prohibited. *I do not own the rights to the royalty free music*

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back, listeners. I'm Robin Black, and this is It's All About Healing Podcast. I'm super excited to talk to you guys about my weight loss journey and how I went from 421 pounds to 290 pounds. So that's that's a big one. But I'm definitely going to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly and also buyer's remorse. But first, I kind of wanted to talk about how God paid for this surgery and how strategic God is. One, I've been in transportation for probably about 14 years now, 14 or 15 years. And I started off as a school bus driver. So I have a class B. And kind of fast forward, you know, to try to skip through a lot. God's will will outweigh any skill. Okay. So I something told me to apply in LTL, which is class A, which I do not have, but I actually applied and I became a supervisor. But God put it on my heart to apply to this position. And they hired me, they taught me so many things, right? I learned it was just it was a wealth of knowledge to learn there. I kind of got thrown into the fire, but I'm actually working on getting my class A now. But um it was a lot. But in this time frame that I was here for a year, it was they they partnered with Kerum Health. And as I signed up for benefits, emails started coming through. And this email came through. And most emails that come through and just says, Hey, do you need help paying for this? You normally, you know, at least me, I normally would delete it. And this time something told me to click on it, read through it, and it said, you know, do you need help with knee replacement? Do you need help with this? And then finally I saw bariatric surgery. And mind you, I have been struggling with weight loss for years. I went through so much trauma, so much pain, relationship trauma, childhood trauma. There was there was a lot going on. I had to sell my house. I had issues with my house. That that's the one reason why I sold it. Then the moment I sold it, I moved to an apartment. Then we had a house, or then we had an apartment fire. We lost everything, had to go to a hotel, had to move in with my mom. Like there was a lot that I was that I was dealing with. And moving through all of that without kind of going into it, when I got that email, it was it was kind of suspect because I'm just like, this is too good to be true. They say you do you need help to pay for your surgery, but what exactly does that mean? Right. So I call and the lady goes through the rundown, and she was just like, basically, with Kerom Health and Journey Light, they partner together. And I'll put all that information in the description below because I hope what whoever you work for, if you have insurance through that company, or even if you don't have insurance through a company, look up Kerum Health and that's C-A-R-R-U-M, and then Journey Light. Again, all of it's going to be in the description, but I hope that you reaching out to them will help pay for this surgery. But once I spoke to the lady, she was like, We pay for everything. And I was just like, There's just no way. I don't believe it. So I called my mom and I'm talking to my mom about it. And she was just like, Well, you've been wanting this surgery for almost like 10 years. And it was hard. It was hard because wanting this surgery, I've been discouraged so many times because a lot of the insurances that I had, they kept denying me, or I would go to the class and then I would get discouraged and be like, I can't do this by myself. There's no way. But this was just time. You know, with God, it is all about timing, right? It's it's us that has to pass through it, but it's God who works on the outside of time. And the way He sets things up is just, oh my gosh, it's just so beautiful. So she told me to call Keram Health and get the pre-authorization and things of that, you know, get all the medical history, the background, everything that I've tried. I've tried Wagovi. I was on Adipex. I mean, I had, oh, I was on Adipex for years, and Adipex has a lot of different side effects that are not the greatest. But, you know, if you guys have questions on that, always feel free to reach out. But so I reach out to him and he said, yeah, this is gonna be a very quick process. Not only do we pay for the surgery, but because you're in Indiana, this surgery is gonna take place in Cincinnati, Ohio, because that's where their office is based out of. And he was like, Some of your appointments are gonna be there, but we do have some satellite companies or some satellite offices in in Indiana. So I was like, okay, no problem. That's only a two-hour drive and it's worth it for free surgery. So he goes through everything, he gets all of my medical history, all of my paperwork, and not even, I want to say it took maybe about three to four weeks, maybe only three. And he was like, Okay, you're approved for everything. You're gonna go ahead and go. And not only are we paying all for your surgery, because the there, this is an outpatient facility. So you're actually going to be at a hotel that's across the street from the uh medical facility, and we're gonna have nurses on call, every everything's gonna be okay. You know, we partner with this hotel so they know. And I was like, Oh, I don't know. But he goes, You're also gonna have a$200 stipend. So not only are we paying for your surgery, we're paying for this hotel stay, and we're giving you$200 to help pay for your food and gas to get there, and also any prescriptions that you may have right after the surgery that you need to get, Kerum Health is gonna help you pay for that. So I'm just like, God, no way! Like, this is insane. Are you serious? So it flies by, right? And I'm just like, and my mom sent me to to Vegas at this time for a birthday gift. So I'm in Vegas and I'm we're still talking about this, and I'm like, I'm waiting to get approved. I'm waiting to get approved, right? Even though it was a very quick three weeks. But meanwhile, while I'm waiting to get approved, I'm on YGovi. We're going to Vegas, and I had a horrible, not a Vegas was fun, right? Vegas was, I was with my little brother, my mom, my aunt, my uncle, and it was an amazing trip. But my weight slowed me down from that trip. You know, the airplane ride, I couldn't really fit in the seat, even with what do you call it, a seatbelt extender. It it was a hard pill to swallow to be in that head space trying to have fun, but I'm embarrassed, I'm I'm ashamed. It it again, that next video, I'm talking more about the shame, the guilt, and being an emotional eater. But for this video, I just want to kind of stay on topic. But so when I when I was in Vegas, I had that huge wake-up call. You know, my my knee was hurting, I could barely walk. I my mom set up for us to go to the Hoover Dam. Couldn't do it because I couldn't walk, I couldn't walk that far. You know what I mean? My weight kept me from doing a lot of things. And I'm like, I don't care. I'm getting this surgery this time. I'm not backing out, I am not doing this this time. So we get back home. That's when they sent me the email that everything was approved, and it flew by. So the day of the surgery comes. No, wait, because they told me, no, let me say, okay, forgive me. What happened was once it was approved, I went to go see the nurse practitioner here in Indiana in the satellite office. And she told me that I had to lose 30 pounds on my own before I could have the surgery. But she assured me that they were going to be able to make it happen. So I'm like, okay, all right, this is this comes the good, bad, and the ugly, right? So having to lose that in my mind, I'm thinking, how can I do this? Right? You guys told me that I could get this surgery. Now, if I if I could lose 30 pounds by myself, I wouldn't need this surgery, right? That's that's the way that my mind is thinking. Then they told me, well, it's because of your fatty liver. If that if you have that fatty liver, this is like a lauroscopic surgery. I'm sorry if I said that wrong. I can't think of it. But the doctor's sitting at a computer and then there's just a machine that's actually doing the surgery on you, and it makes these five small incisions, right? But if that liver, if your liver has too much fat on it, then the machine can't get to where they need to cut, and it's very, very dangerous. So you have to actively be already losing weight so that that fatty liver is not in the way. So that's the main reason why you have to make sure that you're losing a certain amount and everyone's different on how much they need to lose. But I talk about in another video that's going to be linked below the prote foods, which is all foods that are in high in protein. I think I was eating about anywhere from 2700 to 3300 calories a day. Like it was terrible how it was eating. I it was horrible. But then I went down to 600 or 800 calories a day, but it it put me in losing weight, but it and it actually kept me full because it was loaded with protein. But definitely go to that ProD Foods and Protein, the one that I'm gonna link below here. But I was losing about a pound and a half to two pounds daily, and I made my goal weight, so I was good with that, right? Long story short, I made my goal weight. It definitely was not easy, but I did it. In the day of surgery, I start praying to God when we're driving out there, and I'm like, God, you know how sometimes we doubt. And I was like, God, I know this is you, I know you helped pay for this surgery, but if you really, really don't want me to do it, give me a sign, let me know. What should I do? I have no idea. And when we got out the car, when we got to the hotel, as I was getting out the car, I was still talking to God, still talking to God, God, if I shouldn't do this, let me know. And as soon as I turned around, there was this rainbow. I have never been so close to a rainbow in my entire life. And not only was I super close, like smack dab in front of the rainbow, it was so vivid and so pretty. Like the colors were so dark and vivid. It was like clear as day, this is nothing but God, right? He's giving me this promise. Like, I promise you, this is what you're supposed to do, and I promise you that everything's going to be okay. So I was like, okay, all right, all right. That's I've told my mom looked at it, she was amazed. I took a video of it. It was just, it was beautiful. It was clearly nothing but God. I'm trying to wrap my mind around it. So we get there, fall asleep, everything's good. The next morning, I get to the facility. The lady at the front desk is amazing. She had the surgery herself. So hearing her comforting story about her going through the surgery, it helped. And my surgeon's name is Tracy Curry. He is a phenomenal surgeon. I just I highly recommend Journey Light if you need this surgery. It is the staff is absolutely amazing. And again, you know, the information is gonna be below. But I come out of surgery, right? After everything went really smooth, but the moment I woke up, I was in excruciating pain, like pain that makes you cry for your mother. Okay, so I am allergic to a lot of different pain medications. So there's not a whole lot I can do. I can basically get on like a really strong form of ibuprofen. Um, but I was in so much pain. I was in that pain where you can't stop moving because you just you just want the pain to stop. And then I'm waking up from the anesthesia. So I'm trying to go to sleep. I'm trying to, it was a lot going on, right? So you have these five incisions, but the top one where they take the remaining stomach out, because you know, you're going from, I think they're cutting out 85 to 90% of your stomach, right? So you're going from almost like a basketball-sized stomach to just a sleeve, a small sleeve. So the nausea, um, the pain where they pull that 90% of your stomach, they pull that out. That is the scar that is going to hurt the absolute worst. Okay. And I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Okay. I do, I would never wish this pain on my worst enemy. I've had two C-sections. I suffer with kidney stones a lot. And this still was nowhere. This pain was the most pain that I've ever felt in my entire life. I I will never go through this pain again, right? That's when that buyer's remorse was all the way in there because I'm just like, should I maybe I shouldn't have done this? Because I didn't know it was gonna be this much. I didn't know it was gonna be this painful. And then my doctor came in and he was like, No, Robin, you know, he was so calming and reassuring. Like, I just I love Dr. Curry. And he was like, the first 24 to 72 hours could be the absolute worst. And I'm just thinking in my mind, is why didn't you tell me this before? Or maybe they did, right? But my mind was somewhere else. So I make it to the hotel and seeing my aunt and uncle went with us, and them seeing me in so much pain was painful for them, and then I didn't want to see them, you know, I mean, not really knowing what to do. So it was a lot of emotions going on. I'm dealing with this pain, I'm trying to get comfortable, I can't because the pain is that severe. Then the dry heaving, I whoo, it is torture. It was for me. Not everyone is the same, but I call the nurse because I'm like, well, where's the nurses? I know this is an outpatient, I couldn't believe that they were sending me home in all this pain. How is this even possible? What is going on, right? I called the nurse, and believe it or not, Dr. Curry gets on the phone. Like, Dr. Curry is very hands-on with his patients. And he calls me and he was like, Hey, Robin, you know, we we sent you home with all of the like five different antinausea medications and some of the pain medication. He said, use the nausea medication that dissolves under your tongue because when you have after you have this surgery, you're gonna want to keep constantly swallowing, right? I don't know why, but it just makes you want to keep swallowing. And the more you keep swallowing, the more it's gonna come up, right? You're gonna keep getting sick. And so it it is just not fun. It is it is so much going on right after the surgery. But Dr. Curry was like, it's only gonna, it's you're only gonna be feeling like you're in hell, basically, for 24 to 72 hours. And mine lasted for exactly two days, right? The the constant getting sick was just the first night, just the first night. Then I was taking the medication properly the way that I was supposed to, with just little sips of water, right? You do not want to take too much when you first have this surgery, even though you're on a liquid diet, take it slow. Like that's the number one thing that I can say is one, make sure you follow doctor's orders to a T, but also make sure that you're baby step in everything because your stomach is very, very, very sensitive. But you're on the liquid diets. Jell-O became my best friend. They give you this little machine that you you blow in and you have to you need it for your lungs. Hold on, let me see if I can grab that really quick. Okay, because I don't know if it's really going to be home. Okay. Okay, so sorry about that. So this this little machine here, this is the thing that they make you, they take it and they make you blow in it. And I think they want you to get to I think 2,500, you have to suck in air, right? Because it's it's testing your lungs to make sure that you don't have any fluid in it. And you're just like, what when you're in all this pain and going through all this stuff and you have all these pills lined up, and you're like it, it was insane. You have all these pills, all these different pills. You're you're you got this thing, you got your jello, you have your your different fluids, you're just trying to mentally prepare all of this. Like, let me just get my mind right while you're trying to also recover. It's a lot going on. And then you're like, I gotta do this thing every two hours. What is it? This is very important. And I'm telling you, when they tell you to use this, make sure you use this every two hours because there were certain days when I couldn't even get it down here, and I was like, what is going on? Something must be wrong because they're checking for blood clots in your lungs and things of that nature and and having fluid in your lungs. So you want to make sure that you actually utilize this. But so getting all the jello and fluid that that was good. I was able to keep a lot of it down. Then I think they're gonna tell you to get on a blood thinner. I was on eloquence, and eloquence caused me to start throwing up blood. So my doctor told me to just immediately stop taking it. But you still have to be very, very, very careful that those blood clots don't develop. So definitely focus on what your doctor says. But then going through the liquid diet, the puree diet, then finally moving to solids. It's it was a long road because you can't, you basically can't eat for like the first three months. That's uh that's part of the reason why you lose a lot of weight and you're gonna gain a lot of loose skin. I think in my first week, I lost about 30 pounds, like it just fell off. So you're gonna have loose skin. That's that's inevitable, right? You're gonna have that, but you want to make sure in the next video I talk about the different protein that you want to take that's gonna help your elasticity. There's there's a lot that's gonna do that. Me personally. I there the easy way to get protein because you want to try to get at least about 30. No, wait, I think it's 60 to 80 grams of protein a day for women. That's the that's the minimum that you want to try to get. And drinking those premier protein shakes or the pure protein shakes, they're good. But it also tastes like you're drinking liquid pancake mix, right? It's kind of hard to drink two of those every single day for the rest of your life, right? So I talk more about the protein through pro de fruit foods. It's phenomenal because literally everything that you're eating, it's the is the perfect portion. Everything is perfect, and you can just kind of get through life. But you definitely want to measure your foods. That's the one thing that you want to keep track of. The one thing that I struggled with is my fluid intake. I still struggle with it a year out because trying to eat, you have to really make a schedule. Trying to eat, trying to get 64 ounces of fluid, trying to get your protein intake. Like it's a lot to try to consume when your stomach is so small. Because I developed acid reflux in a horrible case of it. And I still struggle with, I mean, my acid reflux is a lot better, but I still struggle with it, right? And when they when the doctors tell you don't eat two to three hours before bed, they really, really mean that because you will throw up and it's very dangerous to throw up in your sleep. It's happened to me quite a few times because we're human, you know. I mean, if I'm sitting on the couch and I'm just, you know, eating something small and then you fall asleep, guess what? It's still gonna come up directly. But just be very careful with that. But when you're with this program, Care on Health and Journey Light, they walk you through everything. You can always call the dietitian. She's on call all the time. Like they follow up with you and they stay, they're so hands-on and they're so patient. All the dietitians have gone through the surgery themselves, so they definitely know from personal experience what you're going through, how you feel mentally. They're there just to talk to you when you just want to talk. I mean, they're they're just always there and they're with you every step of the way. I couldn't have asked for a better place to have this surgery. And again, I'm in Indiana. This surgery was in Cincinnati, Ohio, or Fairfield, Ohio. They're they're right next to each other, but oh, it was just such an experience, right? The buyer's remorse, it only lasted for the first like four months because I couldn't eat, right? I was starving. And coming from being an emotional eater and going into not being able to eat at all, whoa, right? It it's it's a shocker and it messes with you mentally. But excuse me, for the most part, it wasn't really that bad. And now, of course, I feel like it was the best decision that I ever made because essentially it saved me from myself, it saved me from that self-destruction because I needed it. And and the one thing that I realized is that God is with us all the time. Because what I kept thinking is gluttony, you know, that's a sin, overeating. I'm doing this, I'm doing that. But God was with me the entire time, even through all my doubt, my loneliness, me trying to hide myself from my friends and family, trying to hide myself from the world because I didn't want them to see how much weight I had gained. There is so much that you go through internally when you're battling different things. Like mine was mine was overeating, but some people battle sex addiction, some people battle alcoholism or drug addiction. There's so many different things that people are dealing with internally. And this world likes to make fun of people who are dealing with certain things, and it's be gentle with each other, right? That's one thing that I can definitely say. But also how God paid for this and how strategic he is is because I was at this job that paid for this surgery for exactly one year. And then not, I mean, it sucked, right? Because I got laid off, but I was there, I made it, I was there. I started in June of uh-oh, in June of 24, and then they laid me off in June of 25. But June of 25 was my last appointment through the satellite company, right? I'm still you still have post-op appointments for a while after, but for the very important post-op import appointments, that was my very last one was in June. But now, you know, on new insurance, I still go to them, I still have those appointments. But it was just amazing how strategic God was and how long he kept me at that job. And I'm still in LTL, I'm still thriving, thankfully. But God is just amazing, God is just so amazing and so strategic. And his ways, the way that he orchestrates things and how calculated he is. It's like we go through these things not knowing why, but God is the beginning and our end, right? He knows why we're going through these things. He knows he knows the end, even when we don't fully understand. It's just about being able to trust him, even in the times when we don't understand. We want to make things make sense to us, but God says it doesn't need to make sense to you. You just need to trust me, right? Just trust him. That's all you have to do. And again, every God's will will outweigh every skill every single time. Okay. And it's just amazing what God does for us and how he moves us in certain positions, in certain companies, in certain areas. God's gonna put you with the right people, and you just never know who's gonna be a destiny helper. You never know who's gonna take you along the way. You just you never know. And that's what's so amazing about God. But I'm thriving um after this surgery. It's I still have bad days, you guys. Like I still have bad days, especially when you want to eat ice cream and stuff, needs to be like a very small amount. Okay. The ice cream is very, very dangerous. The loose skin, I actually might there was only going to be three, it's gonna be a three-part series, but if need be, I'll definitely talk about the loose skin and dealing with that because it gets pretty bad dealing with the loose skin, and there's some infections that you get. It's it's a lot, like I said, it is a process and it is a lifelong process. But the number one thing I can definitely tell you is to take your vitamins. If you don't do anything else, whether it's the chewables, whether it's the capsules, make sure you stay on top of your vitamins and try to stay on top of your protein. And if you can't drink the protein, make sure you're eating the protein. And again, it's hard trying to get it all in in 24 hours a day, right? And trying to keep up with it every single day. I still struggle with it, but it's definitely something that you need to focus on and stay on top of it as much as you can. And if you guys need any help, if you guys want to know any more information, again, reach out. Everything's gonna be in the description below. And everyone, stay blessed.