Weight loss shortcuts can be toxic!
Sophie Durand’s journey to health
In September of 2013, Sophie Durand decided she was tired of battling her body to stay in shape, a battle she appeared to be losing despite her considerable efforts.
“I spent 18 hours a week in the gym but I gained ten pounds a year no matter what I did. I tried everything … you name it, I did it. I would lose weight, but then I would gain it—and even more—right back. I was so discouraged.” At some point, because of personal changes in her life, including selling the day-care facilities that made her well known in Aylmer, she suddenly didn’t have time to exercise. Stopping the workouts led to even more weight gain. “Between 2008 and 2013, I gained 100 pounds.”
When her weight climbed to 350 pounds, she considered her options and decided on gastric bypass surgery, even though she was told that, with her situation, she stood a 50% chance of not making it. During the procedure, doctors cut out most of her stomach, leaving it the size of a straw, and lopped off several feet of her intestines. She survived the surgery…but the nightmare was just about to begin.
“Three weeks after the operation, I had to go to the Hull hospital because of dehydration,” she recounts. After that, she contracted the C. difficile bacteria, prompting severe diarrhea and further dehydration. Because of the size of her stomach, she could only eat jars of baby food and could only sip water. Over the months, the pounds fell off. “I lost around ten pounds a month, much faster than I was supposed to lose it.” The dramatic weight loss shocked her body, giving a grey pallor to her face and changing her appearance so much that people no longer recognized her.
Ms. Durand came perilously close to death in the years since the initial surgery. In one dramatic incident in May of 2014, excruciating pains in her abdomen sent her to the Hull hospital, where she learned she had developed a dangerous twisted intestine. However, the complicated repair operation needed to be done in Quebec City; she was raced there and arrived in the nick of time. “We got there at 3:45 and at 4:00, I was in the operating room. Had it been two hours later, I would have been dead.”
During one of her hospital stays, she encountered a young man who had undergone similar surgery. He, however, had a dangerous complication. “Something went really wrong. He was vomiting his own feces.” A bowel or intestinal obstruction usually causes this life-threatening condition. Food makes its way through the digestive tract, where it is turned into matter that is toxic to the body and must be expelled. However, in these rare cases, there is nowhere for that poisonous material to go but up.
Her chronic illness perplexed doctors. “As time went by, I could hardly walk. My hips were crooked; I had back problems. I had the body of a chronic anorexic. I became allergic to B1. I was tested for so many diseases, including Multiple Sclerosis. Doctors told me I had the insides of a 70-year-old woman.”
But in February 2015, Dr. Isabelle Labrie of the Aylmer CLSC took over. “Dr. Labrie has known me since I was 16. She’s like a mother to me. She is an angel. She drove to Quebec City with all of my files and met with the doctors who operated on me before.” They quickly determined that Ms. Durand would need one more surgery in Quebec City … and again, her life would depend on it. “They said I could die at any time. It was life or death.” After a course of vitamin and nutrient IVs strengthened her, she successfully underwent the complicated surgery in July 2015. “They never told me before the operation, but they considered me a terminal case.”
A miracle?
In November of 2015, she went in for a post-operative checkup and finally received good news: she was healed. “My doctor looked at me and said, ‘You are a miracle!’” I really am starting to feel better. I sleep a lot; I take care of myself. Throughout, I have been blessed by my family. I have stayed positive and I thank God every day.”
Along with her faith, she has been sustained by her friends, family, and from an unlikely source: a television show, Canal Vie’s “Quel âge me donnez-vous?” who selected her for a radical makeover. “The producers gave me my self-esteem back. I felt so ugly and grey. It took eight weeks to film this; they gave me all the time I needed for my health. They pampered me. They spent over $10,000, just on me! They kept me going through some very hard times.”
She says many of her friends are curious about her transformation and hopes they will watch her on the French-language television show. Canal Vie’s “Quel âge me donnez-vous?” featuring Ms. Durand aired on February 1 at 11:30 and will be shown again four times during the week. For more information, visit www.canalvie.com and open the “emissions” tab.
Her life-changing experience deeply affected her. She is writing a book, “La face cachée de chirurgie bariatrique,” intended to inform people of the hidden downside to this dangerous surgery. She wants to connect with young people, especially girls, about obesity, eating disorders, good nutrition and exercise. “Bariatric surgery is not necessarily the answer.” As for advice for those considering such surgery, she insists, “Stay away from your intestines! The stomach is one thing, but don’t ever touch the intestines!”
