My office manager Hannah lost 14 stone after having weight loss surgery. She’s constantly getting snide digs about having cheated her way to weight loss but she says on the most part she doesn’t regret it. In her own words she tells you the good, the bad and the ugly about weight loss surgery.
Hannah:
So all my life I was a very slim kid, literally your average girl growing up didn’t look anything special for the era (not like kids these days… god damn makeup tutorials )
I suffered physically and mentally until I reached breaking point, I moved away and I completely cut myself off from my friends / family and anyone who wanted to help me… my weight continued to spiral out of control and sure enough by the age of 25 I officially weighed 23 stone and counting.
Then everything changed… Again
I was very fortunate, My family loaned me the money for my weight loss surgery however I will advise you that it’s not cheap * I HAD GASTRIC SLEEVE SURGERY AT A COST OF £11,500 *
I chose ‘The Hospital Group’ as my miracle workers and my surgeon was an absolute dream his name is Mr Halstead and honestly I couldn’t have asked for anyone better in the world to perform my surgery.
Now the usual happened, I went I met the people who co-ordinated these things and we spoke about my goals and my targets for my life. We also discussed how the surgery works. Now for anyone who isn’t aware a ‘Gastric Sleeve’ is nothing like a ‘Gastric Band’ and its important you ask the difference between them and how it will benefit you and what changes in your life you can expect… because I didn’t.
All I was interested in was how quickly I could lose weight and never have to deal with my ‘fat obsession’ ever again.
Now is the scary part, I had my surgery 3 weeks later. I paid in full and honestly they love that, they are there to look after you but when you are going private to have these kind of surgeries you get what you want when you want if you’re a paying customer. BELIEVE ME.
I had serious issues with food, mentally and physically before I had my surgery I knew this and I also struggled with my own mental state but I kept this quiet because I didn’t want it to get in the way of my dream coming true of finally being ‘skinny’ like all my mates.
I had my surgery, I wasn’t ready but I winged it as we do and thought bloody hell I’ve done it. How wrong was I ? VERY.
Nov 23rd 2015 I was admitted into hospital to have my ‘Gastric Sleeve Surgery’ in which part of my stomach was removed via keyhole surgery and stapled to create a new smaller stomach to reduce my intake of food and suppress my appetite forever.
Me on a night out in 2013 / Me in hospital the day of my surgery
I weighed 22.5 stone on my surgery date just for reference.
It’s now (at the time of me writing this) 14th Feb 2018 – Since 2015 to date I have been hospitalised 10 times due to severe dehydration, gall stones, not eating, refusing help, possible breach in my new stomach staple points, several eating disorder claims by doctors.. the list goes on and on.
I now currently weigh 75KG which to my knowledge is around 11.9 stone, my total weight loss to date is literally half my body weight. I had lost all my hair due to not eating properly (its only just started to grow back properly now but I have really poor hair now due to diet issues ) I lost 7 teeth from the excessive vomiting every single time I ate over the first 12 months of surgery (I do still vomit now at least 3 times a week from just normal eating ) I have a horrendous amount of excess skin which I didn’t realise would affect me so bad to the point now I hate my body more than I did when I was ‘fat’
And finally and the worst part for me, I feel sick looking at myself and I feel like I’ve failed somehow in all this and nobody can understand it.. what you get is ‘Yeah but Hannah you’re skinny now babe thats what you wanted’ BUT WAS IT?
I genuinely don’t know, because although I am now a size 8-10 in clothes from a size 24 + I feel more ugly now than I ever did before.
I binge eat and make myself ill, I starve myself and I stand and rip myself apart in the mirror and emotionally blackmail myself every single day and that isn’t healthy.
Me @ Our Scouse Bird HQ Xmas Night out 2017
This blog isn’t to bash the people who completed my surgery, they were amazing and gave me results that blew my expectations out the water. The point of this is to warn people about the things you won’t be told can happen to some people if you don’t ask questions or rush into things too quickly… like me.
Please consult your GP, even go to a councillor or try to do a simple healthy eating plan with your mates or fella – It can make a huge difference.
Look at other options instead of just the surgery that tells you how much you will lose, look at the life changing things that happen to your body after your surgery because believe me they exist, don’t think you’ll be fine and you’ll sail through it! RESEARCH IS KEY.
Weight loss surgery changed my life, I got what I wanted which was a clothing size I could be proud of, however that quickly diminished and I became a self loathing weight obsessed girl who now has a serious eating disorder.
If anybody needs help regarding their current lifestyle or is contemplating surgery and wants to talk then please do talk, whether that be to someone like me or a friend a GP anybody. I promise you it’ll help in more ways than you could ever imagine.
Hannah xoxo
