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woman has lapband removed so she can eat...
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: Obese mum has band fitted then taken out because she prefers being fat.
food addiction, and I’m still addicted to food today. With the band, I couldn’t get used to the small portions and hated not being able to eat what I liked.
“My band even slipped. The doctors offered to repair it, but I didn’t want to go through it all again so they removed it instead.
“Now, at 20 stone, I’m happy in myself. I’ve realised I’m meant to be this size.”
Teaching assistant Diane, from Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of a growing number of people who win approval for taxpayer-funded weight-loss surgery.
Last year the NHS spent an astonishing £85million in the war against obesity, and the number of gastric band operations has more than doubled in six years.
More people than ever are asking their GPs to approve gastric bands and gastric bypasses on the NHS. They are also asking for free follow-up plastic surgery to tidy up the resulting loose skin.
Diane, whose current body mass index of 50.8 makes her morbidly obese, had a gastric band inserted, four endoscopic examinations, emergency hospital visits, a procedure to loosen the gastric band and finally another major operation to remove it... all paid for by the taxpayer.
THE REALLIFE STORY AGENCY
In addition, she has seen NHS dieticians, psychologists and specialists at up to £100 a time, all approved by her local Primary Care Trust.
If Diane had paid for the treatment privately, it would have cost up to £8,000 to have her gastric band inserted.
The procedure to loosen the band would have cost another £300-£400, and the final surgery to remove it would have come to between £4,000 and £7,000. Her treatment has amounted to an expensive total of around £15,000.
But, according to Diane, she hasn’t wasted a penny of public money.
“I qualified for the band, and just because it didn’t work for me, it isn’t my fault,” she says. “It wasn’t a waste of money because it was the journey I had to go on to get to the healthy and happy size I am now.”
She insists nobody warned her exactly what life would be like with a gastric band. “When the band was put in, my world changed dramatically,” she says.
“I’d try eating my favourite foods, like bits of pizza or lasagne or even a spoonful of beef curry, and they’d come straight back up again. I couldn’t eat the amounts I wanted and when I did it would come straight back up. The surgery made me bulimic because I’d try eating the food I enjoyed and vomit.
“I’d had enough of it because I couldn’t eat what I loved. So to be happy again I had the band removed. I’m happy now. I’m meant to be a big person.”
Diane was always a chubby child, and by the time she had her daughter Stephanie in 1990, she weighed 14 stone and was a size 14-16. “I have always been a yo-yo dieter but after I had my daughter I battled to lose weight,” she says. “I tried every diet under the sun and nothing worked.
“Over the years I put on more and more weight. I was addicted to food. I’d eat a meal, I’d finish my daughter’s meal, I’d then eat six packets of crisps and a family bar of chocolate. Before I knew it, I had hit 23-and-a-half stone and I was wearing size 26-28 clothes.”
THE REALLIFE STORY AGENCY
Diane confesses she couldn’t stop herself eating. “Food was a comfort and made me happy,” she says. “I admit I made myself this big. At my largest I had arthritis in my knees and as part of my job I had to sit on small kids’ chairs and my size was getting in the way.” With the encourage- ment of Stephanie, 22, Diane asked her GP for help in 2009 and was referred for weight-loss surgery. With a BMI of well over 40, she met the basic requirements for an NHS-funded operation.
“My case was presented to the local PCT board, and after 14 months I was given the green light,” she says. “I was lucky as some people wait for three to five years for weight-loss surgery or other things, like back operations.”
Diane, who had her operation in November 2010, says: “I was excited about the prospect of a new slim me.”
In the first 10 days she lost a stone. “It was a massive shock and in six weeks I lost another three stone,” she says. “It was extremely difficult to adjust. You have to eat smaller amounts. Eat too much and you vomit.”
As Diane’s weight fell off, she revelled in the compliments she received.
But she struggled to control her portions and dreaded going out for dinner in case she’d eat too much and be sick. “Half a starter would fill me up,” she explains. “A sip of Water could make me rush to the loo. Sure, I was getting compliments and people told me I looked amazing. But inside I was feeling terrible. I expected to feel healthier and happier, but I didn’t.”
Then Diane started vomiting blood, and had the first of four endoscopies to find out what was going on.
“It got to the point where I wasn’t eating anything without a problem,” she says. “Finally an endoscopy revealed a tear in my stomach, so my consultant deflated the band in July 2012. I had lost 10 stone by then.
“Three months later the surgeons said they could repair the tear and re-inflate the band but I asked for it to be removed. I couldn’t face years of feeling miserable, years of being unable to eat properly.”
The band was taken out in October 2012, and since then Diane has gained seven stone. “I now know I was meant to be big,” she insists.
“I eat healthily and exercise. I’m finally happy at this weight. Yes, I enjoyed the compliments, but ultimately I wasn’t happy. People told me I had lost my sparkle.
“I know it seems a long process and I started at 23-and-a-half stone and am now back to 20 stone, but the band didn’t work for me.
“I haven’t wasted NHS money because the surgery could have worked, but I realise now I’m meant to be this size.
“I work hard and pay my taxes and I was approved by my GP, a consultant and PCT.” Stephanie meanwhile says she is immensely proud of Diane.
“I have supported her throughout the process,” she says. “It was terrible to see her being sick all the time. She looks so much happier now. This is the mum she is meant to be.”