From a very early age I started to gain weight, when I was 5 years old I was five stone, 6 yrs old six stones - it went up at the same rate as my age! My parents put me on every diet that had been invented, which was hell for a child growing up with “NORMAL” friends.
Throughout my teenage years I watched my weight increase until I finally reached 20 stones. What then made it worse was my mother was taken ill with non - hodgkins lymphoma, and I became depressed and turned to food for comfort. This was a bad time for my weight, as I was attending college and the canteen was across from our classroom. Hence I spent most of my time sat at rest, learning but also comfort eating. My weight soared to 26 stones and my clothes size went up to 32/34. As the years went on my weight went up and down but never stayed down for long as my mother’s health deteriorated.
Unfortunately, I lost my Mum and then my Father in only 18 months, which brought me down to my most depressed time and yet again, food became my only companion. Eventually I opted to have a gastric band in 2004, and was successful with this to a point, bringing my weight down to around 18st. However I was still struggling with a number of problems relating to my weight, not least of which was that people were now saying things like “You’ve had a band, shouldn’t you be lighter?” I still felt like I was a failure as regards my weight, and had no idea what to do next.
I moved from London and came to live in Derbyshire where I had family. One day as I was looking on the internet, I came across Healthier Weight and I started to read about some of the people they have helped and the types of weight loss surgery they did. I made an appointment with Dr Ashton and after some long and informative discussions, I decided to have a Biliopancreatic Diversion.
The Biliopancreatic Diversion (BPD) is a relatively rare operation, but is the most effective for people suffering with serious weight problems and co-morbidities. It is often chosen for people who have had previous bariatric surgery. I became the first person to go to Italy to have this operation done by Professor Franco Favretti and Dr Gianni Segato. This was very frightening but also very exciting because I was finally going to get my dream of permanent weight loss. The surgical team and nursing staff were out of this world, and I would heartily recommend the hospital at Vicenza to anyone thinking of weight loss obesity surgery. I had the same surgical team as I would have in the UK, and all my aftercare is based in the UK.
Since the operation my life has changed and I have more confidence and energy for life. I have not reached my goal weight yet but it is now my choice and how hard I want to work at losing the weight to achieve my goal – I know I will get there in the end! I have even managed to get myself a boyfriend in the past three months, so life is definitely getting a lot brighter.
Suzanne
February 2009
