Woman’s incredible 8 stone weight loss after insurance company paid for gastric bypass op
A WOMAN has revealed her incredible eight stone weight loss after finding an insurance company who paid for her gastric bypass operation.
Karen Lewis, from Watford, Herts, had spent years yo-yo dieting but eventually her diet of crisps, cakes, chocolate and biscuits caught up with her.
By 2014, the 58-year-old, who is 5ft 2in, was tipping the scales at 16 stone and squeezing into a size 22.
She was so conscious of her size she would even look up restaurants online to check she would fit into their seats before booking.
Karen had asked her doctor about having gastric bypass surgery but was told to go on a diet instead.
At the time, she was working as an insurance broker specialising in private medical insurance when she heard about a policy that would cover 75 per cent of the £10,000 cost.
Taking the plunge
Fearing her family would try and talk her out of it, Karen decided to take the plunge and booked in for the op at Clementine Churchill in Harrow, north west London in July 2014.
Karen said: "When I went under the knife I was scared.
“Whenever I’d asked my GPs about this surgery before, they’d always warned me about the risks and told me to diet instead.
“So, I’d spent my whole adult life yo-yo dieting until, eventually, it was like my body just gave up losing weight.
I’d spent my whole adult life yo-yo dieting until, eventually, it was like my body just gave up losing weight
Karen Lewis
"It didn’t make any difference how much I dieted or how long I stuck to it.
“I felt like my body had given up on me and decided to eat what I wanted - when I wanted."
She eventually told partner of 18 years, Jeremy Powell, 60, a former insurance broker, two weeks before but decided to wait until after to tell mum Jean.
Karen added: “You’re changing your insides for life. I didn’t know what Mum would say, so thought it was better not to say anything.
"But when I finally told her, she said if she was my age and had the same choices, she’d do the same thing.
“Jeremy was worried about the risks involved but in the end he realised it was something I needed to do - my mind had been made up - the risks of not having the surgery, outweighed the risks of having it."
Gastric bypass surgery involves dividing the stomach into a small upper pouch and a larger "remnant pouch", before rearranging the small intestine to connect to both.
Afterwards, food only goes into the smaller pouch, making people feel full quicker.
Some food passes through the body without being absorbed at all by either the stomach or the small intestine, meaning patients must take multivitamins for the rest of their lives to ensure they are getting all the right nutrients.
Although it is major surgery, most of the cuts made into the stomach are small, meaning patients are only hospitalised for two or three days and can expect to return to normal life within five weeks.
Qualifying
Karen, who was 53 when she had the operation, explained how, to qualify for surgery under the VitalityHealth insurance policy she used, she needed to have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 35-39, with associated health problems, or a BMI higher than 40.
According to the NHS, a BMI of 30 is classed as obese, and between 18.5 and 24.9 is seen as normal.
Karen had a BMI of 41.
She said: “I paid £2,500 for the surgery and VitalityHealth, who work with a company called Streamline Surgical, paid the rest.
"It makes sense for insurers to offer this, because obese customers may end up costing more in pay outs in the longer term with associated conditions like Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and joint replacement surgeries.”
I paid £2,500 for the surgery and VitalityHealth paid the rest
Karen Lewis
Discussing the recovery, Karen explained that she spent the next two months eating liquid and pureed food.
She added: "I felt fragile for a good few weeks after the procedure but luckily there was no pain and I noticed the results immediately – I lost a stone in the first month alone.
“Jeremy was brilliant about the whole thing and once he started to see the results he knew I'd made the right decision - not because of my new figure - but because of my newfound confidence."
Life-changing
Karen, who now mentors other people thinking about having the gastric bypass surgery on an informal basis, said that not only has her eight-stone weight loss changed her life, but she no longer has to check out the size of seats in restaurants.
She said: "I used Google to look up any potential restaurants and sifted through all the photos available to see what the kind of seats they used.
"If they had arms there was no chance of me having dinner there, I’d never be able to squeeze out."
Now a dress size eight, she still follows a strict diet.
Instead of gorging on buttered white bread, bars of chocolate and sweet snacks, she avoids sweet treats completely, eating healthy salads.
She explained: “I don’t have that off switch in my head, so it’s easier for me to ban the foods I shouldn’t be eating altogether.
“I don’t do slices, I do whole cakes. I don’t do one biscuit, I would do the whole packet.
"An alcoholic can't have a sip of ‘just one drink’, I feel the same way about food."
Karen can also now enjoy thing she once dreaded like clothes shopping and sunshine holidays – and she is even happy to step out in skimpy swimwear.
Reflecting on her journey, she said that it is not only her physical health that has improved following her surgery and successful weight loss, but her emotional wellbeing too.
She continued: “People treat you differently when you’re very fat.
I used to do anything to avoid a holiday, now I’m the first one to sign up for a trip
Karen Lewis
"Even the way people in shops talk to you is different. Often, they speak to you as if you must be stupid.
“Now, when I walk into a clothing shop, the assistants there don’t know I’ve lost all this weight and so they’ll just pass me a size eight item of clothing and treat me normally.
“I used to do anything to avoid a holiday, now I’m the first one to sign up for a trip.
“I go to the gym now and then and I try and walk at least three miles a day.
“I used to drive around and around trying to park as close as possible to where I needed to go because walking made me breathless - where now I’m happy to park somewhere else and do a long walk.”
No longer working in insurance, Karen is about to launch a niche clothing range called The Wardrobe Edit for women who are dress sizes eight to 16.
“People thought because I’ve been fat myself, I’d want to do plus size, but they were wrong,” she said.
MORE ON WEIGHT LOSS
“I’d say to anyone who is thinking about having the same procedure as I had to go for it, but make sure you take it seriously and change how and what you eat afterwards.
“This surgery changed my life completely and I wish I’d had it years ago.”
VitalityHealth has funded several hundred gastric surgeries with Streamline Surgical since 2013.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.