After the breakup,
I was sitting in my room,
scrolling through TikTok and I saw the weight loss Barbie.
She had the bariatric surgery in Mexico
and I decided that this would be a great opportunity for me.
I think she's being a little too trusting about the surgery
in Mexico.
It's really highly risky.
I am Dominican Republic.
I met this man named Mmesoma and he lives in Nigeria.
Does Mmesoma know about your surgery?
Well I don't want him to see me
as someone who doesn't feel comfortable with themselves.
I really don't know what he's gonna say.
I love my husband
but I don't know how to fix our relationship.
OK, you guys, so it's almost time.
How do you feel?
I actually feel pretty calm.
I have no energy, I tried to wake up an hour ago and...
..straight back to sleep. Wow.
So, look.
Kayla, she gave me a gift.
Oh my goodness. How cute is that.
That is so cute.
Yeah, this makes me feel more comfortable.
It's like a little gastric sleeve.
It is, this is what my stomach is going to look like.
Wow.
Look how happy. Yeah.
Today I'm getting the gastric sleeve.
And with surgery, there is a possibility,
that you know, you can have complications
and things could go wrong.
But I'm trying to just keep my storm quiet, you know.
I cannot believe that I'm really doing this.
This is the first day of the rest of my life.
Hi Kayla. How you feeling? Good morning.
(OVERLAPPING SPEECH)
Oh my gosh, I love your earring.
Thank you, hi guys, are you excited? Oh, and your shades!
Yeah, we're excited.
Oh my gosh, they're beautiful. You want them?
Oh my gosh, that's so sweet.
Thank you. Oh, you're welcome.
Thank you.
I feel like each step closer to like actually having the surgery,
I start feeling the anxiety coming.
Like, just getting on the van was like, "Oh!"
I just can't believe I'm doing this.
It's getting so real.
(ROCK MUSIC)
Go.
(ALARM)
Oh stop.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Woah, woah.
OK, baby, looking good now.
Let's go baby.
Looking clean.
Ow.
Right now, I've got a lot of stress in my life, my family,
my relationship with Chantel.
But I keep that by myself, that's it.
You're gonna be having the best sleep of your life soon.
True that. OK.
This is how you treat your patients?
I'm just used to my patients being comfortable in the bed.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
We don't need you falling out.
Hospital protocol.
OK.
Do you have butterflies?
Yeah this is freaky.
Well, you're doing it.
When Winter asked me
if this how I take care of all of my patients,
I'm thinking to myself,
I take care of my patients with all love and respect.
But you're my sister,
I'm taking such good care of you, baby girl.
No, I just don't like needles.
Oh my gosh.
Winter, look over here.
Winter look at me, are you OK?
No, I'm not OK.
Come here. Stay calm.
Look this way. I think I'm gonna cry.
Here. Wait, wait, wait.
Wait, wait, wait, please, give me a moment.
OK Winter guess what... Give me a moment, wait, wait, wait.
Give him your arm. Wait.
It's OK.
She's scared. I hate needles.
Be brave.
Like a cheerleader. Don't look.
OK. Five six seven eight.
I never realised that Winter was like that
I mean when she was little she got her shots,
and she just sucked it up.
And she pierced her own nose. Own nose.
So to see her act like that to an IV was surprising.
Hey.
OK.
This is it, there's no turning back now.
Winter has imagined this moment since she was a little girl.
And I'm just really happy
that she's able now to get the surgery
that would give her the results that she's been wanting for so long.
I am so grateful that the surgeon allowed us to come back there
and to hold Winter's hand.
It's gonna be OK Winter.
It is.
This is your new beginning. It's your new beginning.
You're gonna wake up to a new life. Like a queen butterfly.
Yes.
Goodnight Winter.
See you when you wake up.
It's daunting and scary for me to see Winter drifting off
under anaesthesia,
but I cannot cry, I have to be strong for Winter.
And for Chantel.
2 00:14:12.440 -- 00:14:13.440 align:middle line:90% position:50% Pedro?
What's going on man?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Hold on man what's he doing it here man?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
What you got a beer out man, what's up?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Hey man, it's all love man.
Oh, Chantel doesn't think you're a handyman?
What?
Well let's do it, we got to do it man.
Pedro and I, you know we got a stronger friendship
than he has with you know, Winter, or my older brother or my parents.
So it is kind of a shock,
I never thought it would have been like this.
I got it man.
That's my guy though, I will say that man,
Pedro and I we came a long way, that's my guy.
We good like man, we like, brothers from another mother.
That's my dog man.
You heard Winter's getting, she's getting surgery.
Yeah.
She was explaining it to me like,
her body doesn't process fat normally.
She tried keto, she tried the diets and you know,
she tried going to the gym,
but she just wasn't dropping weight as much.
Yeah.
You were 250?
Yeah man, you was a little bigger.
Damn.
I was telling Winter, I was like,
"Winter, you're beautiful as you are,
"and whatever makes you happy makes me happy,"
but this is like a life decision, you know what I'm saying?
It's a big decision to make, you know.
Like, I don't know man, it's...
You know, the whole thing with Jah, and now she wants to do the surgery.
I don't feel like...
I don't know, I don't know man.
I don't know what it is.
At the end of the day, you know,
I want Winter to chase happiness,
because if it's gonna make you happy, I'm happy.
But this is a scary surgery.
And I'm not gonna act like there aren't any medical concerns.
I wanna support Winter the best way I can.
But if I could convince her not to do it...
I wish I could find the words for that.
Did I call them?
Man it's like, for real, for real, I'm gonna tell you like it is bro.
I'm scared.
I don't want my sister to die in Mexico, man.
(LAUGHING)
Man I haven't talked to her
since the night she broke up with me man.
Do I feel good after it?
I mean it's never, listen, it's never a good feeling
when you know, somebody breaks up with you.
I'm just trying to move forward,
and that's all I'm doing, looking forward.
That's why I got to move out.
I feel like I want to grow as a person,
and I feel like that's a, this is a step I need.
I feel like I need to be by myself.
I wanna be able to wake up and do what the (BLEEP) River wanna do.
I don't wanna wake up
and not be able to walk around naked no more.
That's just me.
You want freedom, you got to move in that direction,
and I feel like moving out is a good direction
that I need to be moving in.
I really don't know how they're gonna feel.
Especially my mum,
I really don't know how they're gonna feel about me,
you know, wanting to move out.
What's that?
Practice, how I'm gonna say it? No.
If you gonna be my ma I need another,
I need another drink, I'm gonna drink this a little more.
Mum, I'm thinking about moving out.
Mama listen.
I love you, I love all of you,
but I'm gonna love y'all from a distance right now.
It's time for me to be my own man.
A hundred percent ready man.
Now listen I'm gonna need you to look at this thing man.
Pedro, I don't know man.
You don't like looking at the instructions
but I'm trying to tell you, you have to read the instructions.
No these, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Both of these are the same way.
So it got to sit like this.
And this how we do it man.
Exactly, we are good with our hands.
Aye!
We need another beer though man.
Let's get some beer, man.
How many minutes have we been waiting?
Five.
The way laparoscopic surgery works is,
they usually have just a few holes in the area that they wanna go.
And they use like, robotic instruments
to perform the procedure.
Winter's having a gastric sleeve,
so that means that they're taking out
75 percent or more of her stomach,
and they're leaving her stomach like a sleeve
and it's like, like a tube.
And it leads right into the intestines.
I'm so worried.
Whenever you have surgery that's going into the abdominal cavity,
you have risk for bowel obstruction,
bruising of your bowel, and infection.
I mean all of these things are going in my mind right now.
And it's scary because this is my little sister.
2 00:27:18.960 -- 00:27:19.960 align:middle line:90% position:50% That's it.
I'm so relieved knowing that Winter has come through it
with flying colours.
I've just, it has lifted a huge huge weight
off of, off of my heart.
Ow, too much pain.
It hurts.
Winter. Hi Winter.
Am I crying? I want flowers.
Winter.
They said you did great.
How do you feel? Hot.
Hot?
There you go.
While Winter was in surgery
we were sitting outside of the operation room,
just thinking about how she's gonna handle it when she wakes up.
How is her recovery gonna be?
Is she going to be in pain?
That feels good, huh?
But is there A/C?
Yes.
The fact that she's waking up, and talking to us, is a good sign.
Do you wanna call Daddy?
I love Daddy.
Let me call Daddy right now.
I see you all but poor connection.
Yes poor connection. Can you hear me?
Ecouter.
Aboutez? Ecouter.
Escuchar. Ecouter.
I mean listen in francais.
Oh OK.
So Winter came out of surgery with flying colours,
she is doing just fine.
Hey that's good.
Yeah. A huge success.
Hey that's the blessing that's alright.
Yes we're so happy, we were so nervous.
You wanna see Winter?
She's asleep but here, maybe she can see you,
if she opens her eyes. But I don't know that she will.
She's opening her eyes for you.
Hold on amigo.
Yeah I see she opened them.
Yes.
Hey.
I'm glad everything went well.
Thank you.
I love you Daddy.
Yeah we love you too,
we said a prayer for you and stuff.
I have gas.
So I knew that the surgery was gonna go well.
Winter has gas now.
Oh OK.
(LAUGHING)
Just let it out. Let it out.
Let it out.
Well they said that Winter did very well on her pre op diet,
so it was clean in her stomach.
And the surgery went well.
So... That's good.
..we knew that she was working hard.
And this is something that she really wanted to have done.
Exactly. For a long time.
Winter's biggest concern is that she feels as though
after she has the surgery,
what if she no longer feels like herself?
What if the surgery changes her into another person?
So much of Winter's identity is her being the plus size girl
who can dress well, who is strong and comfortable the way she is.
But when she starts to lose the weight,
she's gonna have to metamorphous into a new person in a sense.
But she needs to understand that she's still the same her
and it's always been her, and she will always be her.
Alright well we're about to go.
OK. Say goodbye to Winter.
I love you Winter.
I'm really grateful that we have such a close knit family.
Especially for Winter at this time in life.
We love each other, we support each other.
We work on this, we develop this, for each other.
This is a treasure that we have in our family,
Alright bye.
2 00:31:37.080 -- 00:31:39.960 align:middle line:90% position:50% I'm in Mexico with my mum and my sister.
Winter's just had major, you know, abdominal surgery.
And she seems to be doing so well.
Even though Pedro's been nagging me a lot,
I miss him and I am excited to see him.
Maybe this time apart for us,
can help us get back on the right foot.
As a real estate agent,
I thought that he'd work from home at lot more
but he's always in the office and works six days a week.
He hardly like tells me anything about work,
but he's making a lot of friends at work.
And that's where he's spending a lot of his time, after work.
I'm glad that he found something that he's so passionate about.
But the way he treats me has changed.
It makes me feel like my husband doesn't like me
and that we don't have a friendship anymore.
Hi. Hi.
And the lady answered the phone and she was like speaking Spanish
and I was like...
I know, I give her these all the time.
I never give Pedro leads.
Remember when you were like, more leads please.
He printed it out and everything.
Took the time to duct tape it to himself.
And he walked into the boss' office and he said, more leads please.
Nice. We're killing it. One after another.
Every single week now.
How many closings this year is that?
Oh my God Pedro. Damn.
Wanna be partners?
We could do luxury real estate. Yeah we can.
Pedro's great, he's very professional,
he's a go getter.
We're always trying to push each other.
Sometimes he gets things faster than me.
And I'm like OK just teach me how,
and he does it really gratefully,
like he's very humble and a very honest person.
Well you guys are doing awesome,
you guys are doing a really, really good job.
So the first half of the year,
whoever gets the most sales will get the Caribbean trip.
And then the second half of the year
whoever beats that amount of sales, is going to get the European trip.
Pedro is competitive.
We really like him, as we became a very big family,
very good friends, and very good co-workers.
We try to help each other.
You guys are all like my kids you know.
You're all like my kids.
Anto's my little baby. OK.
I, you know I used to babysit her when she was a little girl.
You're like a second mum to me honestly.
Wow.
I care for Pedro like a little brother.
You know, I really care about him.
He's a good kid, kind hearted kid,
just genuine and just want the best for him.
How's your cat? How's your cat.
Yeah, she's great.
So you get the cat, the next step is kids.
So I used to be the one to push him.
Have kids, have kids, we wanna see kids, Pedro.
But he's focused on his career which is great.
I support your career
so you can be super stable for your wife and your kids.
He's so uncomfortable right now.
You got the house for it.
He keeps saying that.
This looks so nice. Look at that.
Oh, it looks so serene. It does.
Winter spent two days in hospital
but Winter was really in very good condition.
But she has to sleep a lot
because that anaesthesia still has to run
and plus she's on pain medication.
So we decided to go treat ourselves to a...
Massage. ..massage.
This feels great.
This is, yes. This does feel great.
I love this.
I know my body is a ball of tension because of Winter's surgery.
I'm surprised how quick Winter recovered.
Me too.
She was like walking around like nothing even happened.
Like if she even told Mmesoma, he wouldn't even believe her.
He'd think she was joking
because she looks like nothing even happened.
Right?
We are supportive of Winter sharing the fact
that she's had the courage to go get her weight loss surgery
with, Mmesoma.
But more than opening up to a new man,
it is a big deal for Winter to own her journey.
And be able to be comfortable enough with it herself
to explain it to another person.
I'm well, how are you?
I like that colour on you.
You like my hair?
Well, thank you.
My day's been great. Guess where I am.
I'm in Mexico.
Yeah, I've been here for a few days now.
No I haven't really tried any Mexican food.
Mmesoma and I have become quite close.
And just thinking that I didn't tell him
that I am having this big surgery, just, it felt wrong.
But you know, there's a part of me that's a little bit nervous
that he might not approve of the surgery.
He might not be attracted to me after losing so much weight.
So...
..how would you feel if I was to come to Africa to see you
and I looked completely different?
You know just different.
The reason why I travelled to Mexico was to have a bariatric surgery.
I just didn't know how to talk to you about it.
My last relationship,
he was against surgeries period
and it kind of left me a little scarred.
Oh, Mmesoma.
I did not expect Mmesoma to be so kind in that moment.
It's not exactly what I had in my last relationship.
I love your smile. It makes me happy.
I know, I can't wait to go to my own house.
Can't wait to see Pedro and my kitty.
We have to go back to Atlanta tomorrow
and I need to relax before I deal with Pedro
when I get home.
The truth is, Pedro and I are not doing well.
And I'm deliberately keeping the problems
between Pedro and I from my family
in order to protect his image in their eyes
and the integrity of our marriage.
Do you like your massage?
I felt Pedro pulling away from me before he got his new job.
But since he's gotten his new job,
like the affection has just really stopped altogether.
The video games,
I mean I wanted to throw the thing out the window.
Used to be like our only issue and it was a pretty big one.
And now I see why.
Because it's deeper than that. It's not about the game.
It's about him
and why he doesn't wanna spend quality time with me.
It feels like Pedro works so much all of a sudden.
Like, that's all he does.
It's none of your business.
Pedro and I are not physically
in a capable state of making a baby.
I've been cleaning your dirty drawers,
picking up after you for about two weeks.
And I haven't seen any change or positive feedback from you.
I don't know why you're so mean.