As long as he can remember, Jackson resident Mark Kelber had been suffering from excessively sweaty palms. “I’d have good days when my hands were dry, but anything—heat, caffeine, stress, etc.—could trigger it, and then my hands would be anything from damp to dripping,” shares the 38-year-old iron [...]
For nearly 40 years, Michael Connolly, a 61-year-old Old Bridge resident, had suffered from knee pain that first began after a lacrosse injury in college. His career didn’t help matters; he worked for 36 years as a motion picture, theatrical, and television teamster, driving a truck to move [...]
In 1993, Elizabeth Losardo, then 64, and her husband Michael, had just retired from Brooklyn to Monroe Township and were ready to start living the good life—including wintering in Florida. As Elizabeth recalls, it was a normal day. She woke up and merely had an innocent yawn. The next [...]
Dee Nemeth had rarely been sick in his life, so it was unusual when the 75-year-old Freehold resident began experiencing bloating last fall. After seeking care at a health clinic, he was sent to CentraState’s Emergency Department for a potential gall bladder issue. There, he was diagnosed with a [...]
After 52-year-old Melissa Rizzitello of Lakewood spoke with a colleague who’d undergone bariatric surgery, she decided it was time to set up an appointment. After a careful evaluation, Ragui Sadek, MD, FACS, recommended gastric sleeve surgery. Melissa had considered bariatric surgery for several years. Having worked as a counselor [...]
Ulcerative colitis by itself would have been bad enough. By the time Kristin Detamore, then 35, returned to work as a school social worker after the birth of her second son, she was accustomed to the pain from inflammatory bowel disease. But the headache baffled her. Unfortunately, the headache soon [...]
At only 22 years old, Mariah Rodriguez’s lifelong battle with her weight had come to this: She struggled to walk from her car up to her attic bedroom, she was uncomfortable going out with friends, and she was on the verge of developing diabetes. Having had [...]
That optimism came from a 24-year-old woman who just the year previously had her life turned upside down by a stroke. Now, more than two years later, Alex's positivity has only grown as she continues to make remarkable progress in her recovery. In December 2012, Alex was just getting [...]
Old Bridge residents Betty and Bob Peterson, both 53, had spent their 35-year marriage doing virtually everything together. For many years, that included eating poorly, becoming obese, and developing significant health problems that often accompany excessive weight, including Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. “After years of putting our [...]
Catherine Zalewski knew right away that she was having a stroke. She just wasn’t able to tell anyone around her. Catherine, who was Miss New Jersey in 2011, was working at her gym as a personal trainer on the morning of July 30 when she suddenly began feeling “very strange,” [...]
