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26-year-old Tracy Searle was 374 pounds when she was diagnosed with sleep apnea. She was depressed, asthmatic, and already pre-diabetic.
“I was eating a lot of junk and fast food and generally anything that was quick, convenient and easy,” she said.
“I was finding it hard to do everything so I decided to make a change.”
She tried diet pills and fad diets, but nothing seemed to work. She needed help, and she needed it fast.
So she got a gastric sleeve operation. This involved getting 70 percent of her stomach removed. The only bit of her stomach that remained was the size of a banana.
“Afterwards, you don’t feel hunger, and it becomes quite problematic because you have to learn to drink again, and for the first six months everything had to be pureed. It was like gourmet baby food,” she said.
Within 18 months, she’d lost 220 pounds. She says that’s not the only change.
“My tastebuds have changed,” she says, “I used to hate pumpkin, sweet potato, and mango but now I love them as my body now craves nutrient rich foods. I gained more confidence, I like myself now and I don’t put up with as many things now as I used to because I never thought it was worth it.”
Howver, like many who go through huge weight loss journeys, her skin wasn’t bouncing back the way the rest of her body was.
“After I lost the first 20 kilograms I noticed I was a bit podgy and flabby—even when I was fat I still had a solid body because everything fit in it. And as I kept going I kept looking more and more deflated and it wasn’t going anywhere. I tried skincare creams and collagen tablets but nothing was fixing it.”
She decided to get the skin removed in November 2014, and more and more people like her are making this choice.
Dr. Jeremy Hunt, her surgeon, said, “There’s been this increase in weight reduction for all the right reasons, and a lot of those patients who have lost these large amounts of weight are being left with excess skin. They want to embrace all the quality of life changes that come with weight loss that the skin is preventing.
“Patients say if they get into a pool it’s like swimming in a sheet. There’s just skin everywhere.”
So Tracey had full upper and lower body lifts to get her body feeling as young as it is. She had 24 pounds of skin removed, and is feeling younger than ever.
“I go to the gym three times a week, I eat nothing but fresh fruit and vegetables and protein so it’s a full-on change,” Tracey said. Though gastric sleeve was the right choice for her, she says it’s different for everyone. “Be realistic, do your research and take it slow.”
