>> This is a typical afternoon for Trina Snoke grading papers.
She teaches ELA at Lurgan Elementary School in Chambersburg.
>> I love to teach sitting on the floor with kids whether that's the whole class sitting
around the perimeter of the rug or it's a small group sitting in a circle.
>> A way of teaching that Trina wasn't able to do for years.
>> It was very challenging.
As my weight got higher and higher, I would find myself just staying in one place and
the kids would always have to come to me instead of moving around the room.
>> Trina struggled with her weight since she was a child.
>> The first I remember being aware that I was different was around third grade.
Someone had made a comment to me and it was the first time that I realized, I don't look
like all the other girls in my classroom.
>> Trina watched her weight continue to increase as she got older.
>> In college, continued to gain weight slowly but steadily.
And that's when I first remembered dieting, trying to cut back on my calories, eating
healthy.
>> Trina tried her best not gain weight when she married George during college.
>> When I got married, I was about 165 to 170.
>> I had never thought about weight.
It wasn't a big deal to me.
I was never a skinny guy.
So it really wasn't something I looked for.
>> I had our first child about six months after I graduated from college.
And with each child, I gained more weight than I should have.
>> I was worried for her health.
And we had had a conversation many a times, you know, she was a young woman.
You know, late 20s, early 30s and you're 300 pounds.
And I wanted her to be around 25 years from now.
>> Trina knew something had to be done when she took her kids to an amusement park.
At the time, she weighed 340 pounds.
>> I went to get on a ride with my kids and they couldn't get the safety bar closed.
I needed help to just do the simple tasks so everyone could enjoy this ride.
>> So Trina enrolled in a surgical weight loss program at Hershey Medical Center.
>> There was the realization that I had an addiction just like other people have addictions.
Just mine was food and it's not something you can totally get rid of in your life.
You can't just stop eating.
And I needed to have some tools to manage that successfully and in a healthy way.
>> Clinical dieticians worked with Trina.
>> The basic thing with our patients here at the Surgical Weight Loss Center is really
trying to work on a healthy lifestyle, changes as far as eating and exercise, and trying
to get them to make changes before so then after surgery, they can have that part of
that lifestyle and have a good successful journey with that.
>> Trina lost 40 pounds before surgery.
She chose to have the sleeve gastrectomy.
>> Which is an operation where you actually completely remove the outer stretchy part
of the stomach.
And we're able to actually remove that through one of our small port incisions.
And then the patient is left with a narrow tube of stomach that is not at all stretchy.
So it's hard to just keep eating and eating.
Eventually, you'll get to the point where you know, okay, I've taken one bite too much.
>> I began losing weight right away.
The most weight came off within the first year-and-a-half.
>> It was just amazing, week after week, she would lose eight pounds or seven pounds or
you know, and it just kept going and going and going.
>> And between 155 and 160 pounds.
>> I'm happy for her and she can do things.
She's not tired.
She's got energy.
>> I'm proud of where I am.
I've got my five-year anniversary coming up this spring.
And I've been able to keep the weight off.
I'm a different person than I was when I started this journey.
>> Trina had high cholesterol and sleep apnea.
Now, she doesn't have any problems.