Columbia Woman Wins Match with Obesity

Columbia, S.C. — Watching 46-year-old Lyn Hibino maneuver around the tennis court, you’d never know that a little over a year ago, she weighed nearly 300 lbs. “I was in pain all the time,” said Hibino. “My joints hurt every day.” Weighing 272 pounds at 5-foot-3, playing tennis, the game she loved, quickly became too painful. “It’s embarrassing to say, but I would take four IB profin before I could play, and then I went to a prescription IB profin just to be able to play tennis,” said Hibino. “And then the next morning when I woke up, I’d feel the pain. Mostly in my right foot and my right knee.” But 24-hundred milligrams of IB profin per day would not stop the pain. Something else had to be done. “Going to and from the doctor, all they were really able to do was just mask it, and the real issue was I had too much weight on my joints.” Hibino tried every diet and exercise program she could find, but nothing worked. That’s when she decided to try a sleeve gastractomy, a procedure shrinking the stomach to the size of roughly three tennis balls. “That was really her last choice,” said Hibino’s sister Margie Haskins. “I guess you could say for her to know she’d be able to lose the weight and get her life back basically.” “I just felt like it was going to work, and I knew because it was the last thing I was going to try that I was going to do it,” said Hibino. “I was motivated, and I was ready. I was physically ready and I thought I’m not giving up tennis. There’s no way I can give up tennis. And if I don’t do something, I’m going to have to give it up.” The procedure was a success, and Hibino never gave up the sport she loves. She’s lost over 14 waist sizes and dropped more than 130 lbs. And yes, the tennis junky still gets plenty of her court fix. “It wasn’t about wearing nice clothes or looking good for me. It was about just getting rid of that pain. Just not being in pain anymore. But I have to say it’s pretty exciting not to have to shop in the plus section anymore. To have a life with my family and friends and children especially. They’re young, and um I want to be around. I think I’ve added years to my life. I hope I can play tennis until I’m 85,” Hibino laughs.