Ramona Holloway has always been what she calls "chubby."

At birth, she was a "super-sized" 9 pounds, 15 ounces. By fourth grade, she weighed more than 130, as much as many grown women.

And a few years ago, amid an unhappy marriage, she topped out at 232 pounds.

Holloway, a popular drive-time radio show host on WLNK-FM ("The Link" 107.9), often shared her dieting struggles on the air - Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, LA Weight Loss, Metabolife, the cabbage soup diet, the lemonade Master Cleanse.

"I can lose some weight," she said. "I just gain it back - with friends."

But today, Holloway thinks she has found the answer, not only for her weight but also for two other problems that threatened her health.

On Jan. 19, she had gastric bypass surgery, a stomach-reducing procedure that has grown in popularity with the rise in obesity in the United States.

By the time Holloway entered Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory, listeners of "The Matt & Ramona Show" knew all about her journey. She had talked about it on the air and written about it on her blog since last summer.

In addition to her weight, she was also concerned about her Type 2 diabetes, a condition that affects nearly everyone in her family.

"My godmother lost her kidneys. My aunt is losing her eyesight. My uncle is losing his toes," she said. "That is frightening."

Before she was diagnosed, Holloway tried exercise and nutrition to keep her blood sugar levels in the normal range. It didn't work. When she started taking medicines, they caused diarrhea and other difficult side effects, so she quit taking them after six months.

"Some days my vision is so blurry I can barely read a magazine or my blood sugar levels drop so low I get dizzy," she wrote on her blog last October.

An untold story

When Holloway read more about weight-loss surgery, she learned something that surprised her: Researchers have found that diabetes all but disappears in some obese patients soon after weight-loss surgery and that many are able to achieve normal blood sugar levels without medications.

She wondered: "Why isn't this story being told?"

Gastric bypass is a surgical treatment for people who are considered morbidly obese, with a body mass index of 40 or higher (35 if the patient has other life-threatening conditions such as diabetes). As with any surgery, there are risks of infection and blood clots. Strict limitations on diet after surgery can be difficult for patients, who may also experience complications that result in diarrhea and vomiting. Even after successful surgery, some patients gain back much of the weight.

Many people, including Holloway's mother Wheezy, warned her against surgery, recalling horror stories they'd heard or experienced. She also remembers "hurtful comments about 'getting off the couch and putting down the fork.' "

"There is this 'lazy fat slob' stigma that goes along with surgical weight loss," Holloway said.

But she knows it's more complicated than that. Lazy is not how anyone would describe Holloway, who has worked in radio for more than 20 years. Her daily radio show with Matt Harris runs from 3 to 7 p.m., and they co-host Channel 18's Fox News Edge from 9:15 to 11:15 p.m.

After attending a seminar on weight-loss surgery, Holloway decided to have the operation - and make it public.

"If there's something to this, people should know about it," she said.

Revealing sexual abuse

Then, in November, Holloway's story got more complicated when the child sex abuse scandal broke at Penn State University. That news about her alma mater "hit me hard," she wrote.

For the first time, she decided to speak publicly about her own abuse as a child.

"Part of my preparation for gastric bypass surgery has been mental and emotional," she wrote Nov. 15. "I opened up to friends I'd be counting on for support. I told them about the childhood sexual abuse that I know has blocked my best efforts to take the weight off for good. ...

"For many years I've hidden this part of my history. ...I didn't want people to feel sorry for me. I didn't want people to make assumptions about my mom's parenting skills. She was and is the best mom on the planet! ... I know it hurts her to her core that she didn't know."

Holloway said she was only 6 when a 15-year-old friend of the family molested her. She doesn't remember his name and didn't fully understand what happened until years later. She was in her 30s before she told her mother.

"I now believe that ripping the Band-Aid off of this wound I've had for almost 4 decades is the best thing I can do," she wrote.

Blessing others

Having shed that secret, Holloway feels she has "a second chance" for a longer, healthier life.

The surgery was worth it, even though her insurance didn't cover the $45,000 bill. (She did get a discount from the hospital because of the publicity she is giving through her blog and radio show.)

Before surgery, Holloway weighed 221 pounds. More than a month later, she has lost 25 pounds. Her doctors say the ideal weight for her 5-foot-5 frame would be 132 pounds. She thinks 150 is more like it.

But just as important as weight loss is her blood sugar level, which is near normal for the first time in years.

On the day of surgery, it was 192 milligrams per deciliter. (A normal fasting blood sugar level is 70 to 100.)

The day after the surgery, it was 127, without medicine.

Holloway returned to work 11 days after surgery. She has more energy than before, enough to run up the steps from her office to the studio.

With a smaller stomach, she's less hungry and finds it easy, for the first time, to resist Doritos in the vending machine. What's more, Wheezy, who lives with her daughter, is also eating better and has lost 12 pounds.

Holloway's email and blog are filled with comments from people who also have struggled with weight, diabetes and sexual abuse.

"I know what that extra layer of fat is about because I had it," Holloway said. "Type 2 diabetes has been a blessing. And I'm able to use it to bless other people."