Marla's Success: How Bariatric Surgery Made the Difference
February 18, 2026
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On Dec. 19, 2024, Marla Duby ended one chapter of a lifelong health journey and started another. At Legacy Weight & Diabetes Institute, Marla underwent full gastric bypass surgery — bariatric surgery in simple terms. She weighed 329 pounds at the time.
Because every surgery presents risks, Marla had fears. But she also felt urgency to change her life because her weight was affecting her long-term health outlook.
“I was dying,” she says. More than a year later, life is dramatically different for the 54-year-old Portland resident. “Now, I can move and bend down. I hadn’t taken a bath in a bathtub for years.”
Post-surgery, Marla describes herself as a “brand new me.” She now weighs 192 pounds and has more physical and emotional energy. She can walk, enter vehicles, walk stairs and cross her legs. None of these things were possible before bariatric surgery. A California native, Marla was born prematurely by several weeks and weighed under two pounds at birth. She required multiple blood transfusions and was given a 25 percent chance to live. At age three, doctors discovered that Marla couldn’t hear. She’d been born deaf because her auditory nerve never developed.
Marla was sent to a deaf school not long after. Looking back at these early years, Marla says being deaf presented difficulties, and those difficulties perhaps overshadowed her weight issues. Though physically active, Marla says she’s been overweight her entire life. By high school, she was 180 pounds and wore plus-size clothing. Marla also has asthma, which makes losing weight through strenuous exercise like running and cardiovascular activity challenging.
What’s more, Marla suffered a severe knee injury at age 22 while errantly stepping into a pothole. This further curtailed her physical activity. Though the knee was repaired, Marla’s body was never the same. As her struggles with weight came into greater focus in her adult years, Marla tried various diets and other strategies: She drank diet shakes, ate mostly fruit, salads and cottage cheese. She tried different “body makeover” regimens. She went to the gym and took water pills. At one point, Marla estimates she was taking 12 different medications.
Marla felt like time was running out. She couldn’t stand for long durations and was confined to a power chair for eight years. Her highest weight reached 375 pounds. Happily married to James Duby, Marla was scared about the future — of being alive and healthy and being able to share a joyous life with James in the years to come. That feeling of death and of time running out, Marla says, haunted her. Eventually, she began thinking about more aggressive options, particularly bariatric surgery.
Bariatric surgery: The right choice
Though the recent slate of drugs like Ozempic have become the “go to” choice to lose weight, Marla had other thoughts. She was already taking a similar drug, Farxiga, to combat her type 2 diabetes, and her experience with Farxiga informed Marla that drugs weren’t a viable long-term solution for weight loss.
While the idea of surgery initially scared her, Marla was comforted after talking to a friend, Timothy, who underwent gastric sleeve surgery. “I was wowed by him and what he did,” she says. Afterwards, she moved forward: bariatric surgery would be the way.
Preparations began roughly 10 months before surgery. She wanted to lose more weight — 21 pounds — in advance of surgery. There were also stress tests and a host of other preparations leading up to her December 2024 surgery. Throughout, the team at Legacy Weight & Diabetes Institute — providers, nurses, nutritionists, administrators and more — helped her and put her at ease.
The surgery itself lasted nearly four hours, and Marla spent two full days in the hospital. The pain wasn’t that bad, Marla says. Roughly 14 months since surgery, much has changed. Marla plans to lose 17 more pounds to reach her goal of 175 pounds. She has a vitality and determination that she didn’t possess before. Last Thanksgiving, for example, she was on her feet for several hours, helping to serve 200 people dinner at a senior living facility. Such activity was unthinkable before surgery.
Most importantly, her relationship with food has altered. She has stopped craving things she once ate or drank regularly. She has no desire to drink soda, for example, and is similarly put off by fast food.
Post-surgery: Hope for others
There have been a few adjustments to post-surgery life, of course. Marla takes bariatric multivitamins as part of her long-term care and will check in with her medical team every six months for a few more years. She experienced some temporary acid reflux after surgery, which will gradually improve as her body heals. Marla and her medical team are optimistic about her goal of reaching 175 pounds.
As she reflects on a new, healthier life, Marla is grateful to her entire medical team, family, friends and most of all, her husband James, who has been a constant support and “loves me (Marla) for exactly who I am.” This gratitude encourages Marla to want to give back to others, particularly those thinking about bariatric surgery.
“I want other people to know that I am proof that bariatric surgery can change things for the better.”
