I WAS SO OBESE IT MADE ME GO BLIND
A WOMAN lost nine stone after becoming so fat she went blind.
Supermarket worker Lucy Jones, 24, just could not stop eating, even though it was causing chronic headaches.
Years of gorging on takeaways, junk food, chocolate and fizzy drinks meant that she ballooned to 26st and had zero confidence.
Her need to lose weight became urgent at 22, when her obesity triggered a build-up of fluid in her skull and pressed on her optic nerve, meaning she lost her sight.
Lucy, from Kidderminster, Worcs, said: “I was eating several Chinese takeaways a week, as well as mountains of junk food, crisps and familysized bars of chocolate.
“I failed every diet I tried, telling myself that I would be better the next day, but it never happened.”
In August 2017, Lucy was working as a checkout assistant when everything went black.
She said: “I couldn’t see a thing. I started crying in shock.
“My colleagues took me to the optician’s for an emergency appointment.
“They referred me to hospital for a CT scan.”
Doctors told Lucy she was suffering from idiopathic intracranial hypertension. They drained the fluid from her eyes but warned that the measure was only temporary and said she would never see properly unless she lost weight.
Lucy said: “I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing – I was going blind because of my sheer size. I was horrified and full of shame.”
Months later, Lucy was told she had qualified for a gastric band on the NHS and in March 2018 she went under the knife.
She said: “It was a huge learning curve but when I lost two stone in just a month I was amazed.”
Lucy found that with each pound she lost, her headaches eased and her eyesight became less blurry.
She added: “Having gastric surgery to save my sight was a drastic move and not the easy option everyone thinks it is – but it was worth it.
“For the first time in years I can see a bright future ahead of me.”