health
April 8, 2023 | 12:55 p.m
In losing weight, she lost herself.
Claudette Hook shed nearly half her body weight thanks to weight-loss surgery, but says she now struggles with 20 pounds of excess skin that’s making it difficult to have sex and even live her life.
The 59-year-old mum, who once weighed more than 300 pounds, underwent a sleeve gastrectomy, but because of the excess skin — which she has to “fold” in order to “look like breasts” — she admitted she was happier when she was heavier. .
“When I looked in the mirror when I was heavy, I was [was able to look at myself]Hawk, of Newburgh, New York, told SWNS. “Now I don’t like looking in the mirror other than at my own face. I don’t like my body at all. It’s awful. “
“I’m much more self-conscious about my body now than I was when I was growing up,” she added.
The weight started piling on after Hawke gave birth to her first child at the age of 19, but things really went downhill when she had her thyroid gland removed after she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2006.
After having a sleeve gastrectomy in 2019 — motivated by not being able to play with her granddaughter and walk upstairs — she’s now a size 10, but laments the loose skin that came with her drastic weight loss.
“I used to have a nice set of breasts, and now it looks like I have a cow’s udder. I try not to look at my body,” said Hook, who works as a flower delivery driver. “I don’t have boobs, they’re flat and sagging. I roll them up and put them in a bra, so it looks like I have boobs, but I don’t. There’s nothing you want to look at.”
She is now so conscious that she refuses to let her husband, Thomas, of 65, see her naked. She said the couple’s sex life has become non-existent since she lost weight.
“It affects intimacy. I don’t let my husband see me without clothes. I did when I was growing up,” she says. “It’s hard because we had a very active sex life when I was heavier, and I’m still trying to make sense of my brain.”
She added, “I feel like I’m not as attractive to him now with my body looking the way he does, which is why we don’t.”
Now, she’s fundraising for a procedure to remove the dreaded excess skin that causes rashes, pain, and even smells “funky.” While she hopes the surgery will change her way of life, “there’s no guarantee,” she said.
“The surgery is very expensive. I think I will be able to look at myself and [be] Emotionally much happier because even when I take a shower, I get in and out,” Hook explained. “It will save time because I won’t have to use all the compressions. I have to fully secure my body, so it takes me a while to get dressed.”
The surgery will not only remove skin, but also provide breast augmentation and a tightening of her abdominal muscles.
On her GoFundMe page, she admits that she has felt “embarrassed, unloved and obese” her entire life, claiming that doctors have never raised concerns about her weight. In telling her devastating story and ordeal with weight gain and excess skin, she urged donors to help her feel like herself again.
As of Saturday, she has collected only $200 of the $15,000 she says is needed to go under the knife and get her life back.
Hook said she had a horrific experience with gastric sleeve — her body went into shock after the procedure, and she was left unable to exercise, which may have contributed to the excess sagging skin. But she “never regretted having it” because the weight was coming off, and she had more mobility.
“I knew there would be excess skin because I had been overweight for so long, and I was told that after my surgery it wouldn’t be so bad, but I couldn’t exercise because I was in such bad shape,” she said.
Now, the excess skin is causing her pain.
“It exhausts me,” she sighed.
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