Vancouver twins Brandi and Kandi Dreier have always struggled with their weight. Over the years, they’ve tried nearly everything to drop the pounds with little success.
For the last several years, the now 30-year-olds have tried to get weight-loss surgery, but their health insurance never covered the procedure. With an insurance change last year, the women thought they would finally get the surgeries that could change their lives.
When the surgeries were denied, however, the twins’ anxiety soared, depression tightened its grip and panic attacks began.
“We couldn’t leave the house,” Brandi said. “We just kept hitting roadblock after roadblock.”
But earlier this year, the identical twins — Brandi weighing 575 pounds and Kandi at 604 pounds — learned that producers from TLC’s “My 600-lb Life” wanted the Vancouver women on the TV show. Their best friend and roommate submitted an application on their behalf. TLC representatives called the next day.
“And it snowballed from there,” Brandi said.
The twins’ story will appear on the fifth season premiere of the show, airing at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Neither had watched an episode of the show before learning producers wanted to interview them.
“I had heard the title, but I didn’t know what the show was about,” Kandi said.
The TLC series follows people through the decision and process of undergoing gastric bypass surgery.
Soon after the interviews with TLC, the twins left their jobs and Vancouver home and moved to Houston to meet Dr. Younan Nowzaradan, the gastric bypass surgeon who would determine whether Brandi and Kandi were good candidates for the procedure.
“Before we could have surgery, we had to lose 50 pounds,” Brandi said. Nowzaradan wanted to see if the twins could do it on their own, and make sure they were serious about changing their lives, she said.
“We obviously got surgery,” she said.
Both women underwent gastric bypass procedures this year. After Kandi’s procedure, she experienced complications. The trailer for Wednesday’s episode shows a distraught Brandi as her sister is wheeled past on a stretcher.
“What’s wrong with my sister?” Brandi asks in the trailer. “Her heart stopped. They think she might have brain damage.”
The twins couldn’t go into detail about the circumstances of the scare, saying people would need to watch Wednesday’s episode to see what happened.
Brandi and Kandi, who graduated from Prairie High School in 2005, will remain in Houston and continue working with doctors to lose additional weight. They couldn’t disclose how much weight they’ve lost since the procedures; that information will be revealed on the show.
“We’re still losing weight,” Brandi said.
“We just follow the diet that the doctor gives us and, eventually, if you lose enough weight, you might qualify for skin-removal surgery,” Kandi said.
Brandi said she doesn’t have a specific weight she wants to reach, but she does hope to see the scale below 200 pounds. She also hopes losing the weight will help her and Kandi overcome their anxiety and panic attacks.
“I just want to be able to do things and not be scared,” Brandi said. “And live life and be healthy.”
As part of the process, the twins had to overhaul their diet — cutting out the pizza and sugary drinks that they regularly consumed.
“Luckily, it wasn’t too difficult to completely cut that out,” Kandi said.
The twins have struggled with their weight all of their lives. Their biological father’s side of the family has weight issues, as well, Kandi said.
“From a young age, food was used as a baby sitter,” she said.
As their weights increased, so did their anxiety.
“Over the past few years, going out with friends and family got more difficult,” Kandi said. “Everything came to a point to where we didn’t even want to go outside. It just got worse.”
“The show just happened at the right time,” she added.
The camera crews have followed the twins off and on this year and will continue to follow them for some time. For now, they’re only scheduled to be featured in the season premiere, though it’s possible a follow-up episode could come later.
With the exception of Kandi’s post-surgery scare, the twins said their journey is going well.
“Everything, so far, seems to be going as planned,” Kandi said.
“We’re happy, obviously, because it’s just the beginning of our new life,” Brandi added. “It’s exciting, and it’s been 30 years of waiting.”
