Getting Healthier Now for a Longer, Healthier Life Later
8/28/2025
Knowing how she felt at 37, Courtney Ray couldn’t imagine her life 30 years down the road.
“It wasn’t sustainable, and I knew additional health problems weren’t off the table and could have been just a matter of months away,” she said.
Even the short walk from the parking lot to the elevator at doctor’s appointments became a built-in pause, a moment to catch her breath before taking the next step. At just over 500 pounds, Courtney recalls how ordinary moments of everyday life often felt like uphill battles.
“I work in an office that requires me to wear scrubs, but I was already in the largest size available and felt like I was busting out of them,” she said. “I knew that I physically couldn’t get any bigger, otherwise there wouldn’t be any brand of scrubs that would fit me.”
Her body ached, and she feared that her dream of having children and living a long active life with her husband might never come true.
“My husband and I had already run into some fertility issues and our only option was to do in vitro fertilization, but our fertility doctor said that she won’t do the procedure unless I weigh under 300 pounds,” she said. “I was hoping to have a healthy pregnancy before turning 40, and I was beginning to feel hopeless. I wanted to at least have the chance to try to conceive a biological child.”
She knew something had to change, not just for the chance of motherhood, but for her own health and future. That’s when she reached out to the bariatric weight loss services program at Northwest Health, taking the first step toward reclaiming her health and creating the life she wanted.
Courtney reviewed her options with the support of her doctor, Andrew Martin, M.D., a bariatric surgeon and board-certified general surgeon, and decided a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedure was the best approach for her individual health needs and goals.
Courtney’s results exceeded expectations. She lost 60 pounds before her surgery, and has since lost another 60 pounds. Her post-surgical plan focused on eating healthfully while slowly increasing her physical activity.
“Now that I’m lighter, it’s a lot easier to do things and not be miserable afterward,” she said. “As the weight drops off, you gain more confidence and the ability to move is easier. You begin to change different aspects of your life, like going on vacation, which used to be relaxing in the house. On our last vacation, we went to a festival and a walking tour of a zoo.”
Courtney’s day-to-day routine looks different as well. She enjoys taking her dogs on walks, shops in-person, and heads to the gym for cardio and weight lifting a few times each week. Now at 38, she says the bariatric surgery and the support she received gave her the jumpstart she needed, but it’s the choices she makes every day that will shape a longer, fuller life. In the years ahead, her goal is to reach under 200 pounds.
“If I hadn’t made a change when I did, the quality of my life wouldn’t have been as good as it is now. I’m looking forward to growing older, staying active and having a healthy future,” she said.
To learn more about maintaining your brain, vision, hearing, heart, kidney, liver, gut, musculoskeletal and sleep health as you age, Northwest Health is encouraging sign ups for Enjoy the Ride: Navigating a Longer, Healthier Life, at NWHealthIN.com/enjoy-the-ride. They'll also give away prizes every day to help get people on “the road” ahead.
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