Stuff The Steroids – i will Be Slim!
Could rachel beat the meds to get the body she wanted?
Squinting hard at the blackboard from my desk, I sighed. I could barely make out what the teacher had written on it.
I’d struggled with my eyesight over the last few years but this was getting ridiculous.
‘Everything’s so blurred,’ I cried to my mum Linda.
I was 15 and, the previous year, I’d been diagnosed with diabetes insipidus.
But it didn’t explain my other symptoms – headaches and my eyesight getting bad.
Mum took me to the doctor and I was referred to an optologist and given an MRI scan.
‘You have two brain tumours,’ the doctor told me after getting the result.
‘Am I going to die?’ I stammered.
Doctors said the malignant tumours were inoperable, but hoped that strong radiotherapy would get rid of them.
But six, agonising months later, doctors told me the tumours hadn’t gone.
‘They’ve shrunk, but they may grow back’, I was told.
So it was back and forth to the hospital every week to try out new medication.
Unfortunately, that meant that my schoolwork suffered.
I only got two GCSES and even though I signed up to sixth form, I was only there three days a week, spending the other two in hospital.
For years, I had to undergo radiation treatment.
Unfortunately, this destroyed my pituitary gland – which produces critical hormones – so I had to go on steroids to control this.
However, the medication caused weight gain and by the time I was 24, I weighed 23st.
Choccie bar
I was at my lowest point.
‘It’s so unfair,’ I wept.
I’d already had to go through losing my hair because of the tumours and endure people staring at my bald head.
Now my hair had grown back, people were gawping at me for being so big.
‘There’s no point trying!’ I said to Mum as I scoffed a chocolate bar.
As I was on steroids, doctors thought there was no chance I’d lose weight.
So it didn’t exactly inspire me to eat healthily – I’d skip breakfast, and sometimes lunch, then gorge on carb-filled dinners late at night. There was hope, though. I’d asked doctors about a gastric-band operation.
At first they said no - because of my weight, but finally...
‘We’ve got you booked in for next April,’ my GP told me in December 2014.
Seems that me constantly
I’d given up all hope of ever losing weight
nagging them had paid off! Only, then, a friend said she was going to Slimming World. ‘Why don’t you come along with me?’ she suggested. I had four months before I was due to have my gastric surgery. Won’t hurt if I lose a couple of pounds first, I thought.
Positive push
So I joined, and followed their slimming plan.
And at my second weigh in...
‘You’ve lost 13lb!’ the Slimming World co-ordinator beamed.
It was exactly the positive push I needed.
Convinced that steroids would condemn me to a life of being fat, I’d given up all hope losing weight.
Now, though, I had regular meals with fresh vegetables, protein and good carbs. And it worked.
Every week I lost between around 5lb or 6lb.
I was really doing it! In April, my weight-loss surgery appointment came round... but I didn’t need it any more!
So I told the doctors that I thought I’d be able to lose the weight by myself.
I’d already lost 2st naturally. And the best thing about it was that my confidence was getting a real boost.
Within just a year, I’d managed to lose 10½st!
‘Is that really you?’ friends would say, astonished.
In March 2016, I even took the plunge into online dating.
Before long, a man called Steve asked me out for a drink.
Now, Steve and I have been happily dating for 18 months.
A life-saver
Being slimmer is so much better for keeping an eye on my tumours, too.
I had a lump removed from my back recently – nothing sinister, fortunately.
Doctors wouldn’t have operated if I’d still been overweight. The risk of dying under anaesthetic is considered to be too great.
But now I’m slim, if anything malignant is found, doctors can whip me in and take it out straightaway.
Losing weight really could be a life-saver for me.
So I’m never going back! As for my tumours, they’re still monitored and I’m still on the steroids.
But I don’t let it rule my life any more.
I’m a size-14 now and feeling happy and healthy, which is exactly how I intend to stay!