case study - bianca lodder

Name: Bianca Lodder
Treatment: Stomach balloon
Weight before: 101.4 kg
Weight after removal: 66.3kg

'I've been wresting with my weight since puberty. But still I was doing all right for quite a while. When I met Hans, my husband, I was 20 and weighed 60 kilograms. In the first years of our marriage I managed to keep a grip on our marriage, but after that things started to get out of hand. Problems emerged in our surroundings. Not between Hans and myself, but still so close to us that I had a lot of trouble facing it all. I ate away my sorrow and powerlessness and the kilograms kept on coming. I stopped smoking around that time and that added another ten kilograms to my weight.

Then I got pregnant. Hans and I were very happy about this. I didn't like the constant feeling of nauseousness, but I was looking forward to the baby, I vomited for nine months. At the beginning of my pregnancy I weighed 98 kilograms and I was 95 after delivery. Luckily our son Robin had a good weight: seven pounds. After he was born I was determined to lose weight. I had already informed about a stomach balloon around that time. It cost 5000 guilders then. I thought this was an enormous amount of money to spend on myself. There were three of us and the family came first, I thought. I did what I could, but new problems had an even greater effect on me than before. I even suffered from a depression for a while. All the stress made me eat even more. At one point I weighed 101,4 kilograms. More than a hundred, an important psychological barrier for me. I started to get mixed feelings about my weight. One the one hand I was obsessed by it, but when I was sad I couldn't care less.

Hans never gave me a hard time about it. Sometimes I asked him about it but my weight and figure were not of importance to him. He is very down to earth and helpful. He loved me when I was fat and he loved me now that I'm slim.

Tail between my legs
Before deciding on the stomach balloon, I tried just about everything: special pills, Herbalife, a health club, Voldafar, you name it. I also wanted to take up sports. I lost my diffidence and went to a sport school for an intake. I was very enthusiastic about it, but went home downhearted. It was much more crowded in the evening than during the daytime and I only saw beautiful bodies. I wouldn't go in there if it saved my life. The moment of truth came when the company I work for took us all on a skiing holiday. There was a torchlight procession one evening. Everybody received a torchlight and we went walking up the mountain. There was a café at the top where a party was to be held. After walking for about one hundred metres, my energy was completely drained. A few colleagues had to drag me up the mountain. I came there crying and feeling sick. Everybody was already there. I saw pity and loathing on their faces and I felt awful. That's when I decided to take the stomach balloon. It was my last straw.

Costly operation
In August I went to private clinic BodyServices for an intake. They showed me the balloon. It's an inflatable silicone ball the size of a grapefruit. The operation was costly: £2950,-. I took a loan for it and now I'm working more hours to pay it back. I don't want my family to suffer from it. The second intake was in Medical Centre Rotterdam Airport with dr Schelfhout, who was supposed to perform the operation. Thursday 7 September was the day. The balloon was inserted through the oesophagus, filled with a fluid and closed. I didn't have to go under complete narcosis, but only got a slight rush.

I probably put up a struggle when it was inserted, but everything went well. Back at home I went to sleep immediately. I woke up with an enormous cramp in my belly. My stomach wanted to get rid of this strange thing. I vomited without end until there was only gall. When I took some water, it came back after only a few minutes. My throat was sore from the operation and from the vomiting. My mother came to look after me that day. She was at a loss and asked herself what her daughter was doing to herself.

Group conversation I told Robin about the operation. I explained to him about getting a balloon in my stomach, that I could eat less because4 of it and that this would make me lose weight. During the group conversation in school Robin told all about it. The other day I told him it was okay to not just eat sandwiches with peanut butter, but that he could also use cheese or apple syrup. He asked me: 'Do I get a balloon too if I don't?' And a while ago we were on a terrace and he saw overweight man stuff down a big plate of unhealthy food. 'Well mum', he said, 'he could do with a balloon too.'

No miracle cure
The balloon is an expedient, not a miracle cure. You have to find the strength in yourself to only eat those things that are good for you. I had developed an eating pattern over the years with fat and unhealthy food. Besides that I also ate too much. You have to put this right on your own accord. It's not until you have the balloon replaced that you know whether you can or cannot do this. I had the balloon in my stomach for half a year and it helped me to lose 40 kilograms. It was a time of heights and lows. Sometimes it's very difficult to face the fact that you can only eat small portions of healthy food. I've had a difficult relation with eating all my life. I don't like vegetables or any warm dish. The stomach balloon forced me to keep a diet and to eat at least 200 grams of vegetables each day and a portion of salted vegetables like peas or carrots. I also had to eat cheese and I hate that. I love bread, but I was hardly allowed to take any of it. The same rule applied to other products with starch like pasta, rice or potatoes. This is because of the calories, but also because it sticks to the balloon. I had to weigh nearly everything I ate and that was hard to keep up with. Sometimes I nearly gave up, but Hans was always there to help me.

As usual in February the company I work for headed for the snow again. With the aid of the stomach balloon I had managed to lose 27 kilograms by then, but still I felt bad about the torchlight procession. I was a literary sick with nerves all day. I told my colleagues my food had not gone down well and that this was the reason I felt bad. With sweaty hands I took the torch that evening.. and went whistling up the mountain. Now I encouraged others to pull through. When I reached the top of the mountain I yelled with joy. What a victory.

Weighing regularly My weighing sessions at BodyServices were a big support to me. I went there every fortnight and each time I was glad to see how much kilograms I had lost again. The weighing scale always gave me a print out with my previous and present weight, my body fat mass, my fat percentage and the ideal measurements for me. I saved them all in my agenda. On 19 December I weighed 81,6 kilograms and on 3 January - after the holidays - 81,2. That was not the amount of weight loss I was supposed to have. But on 16 January I had lost quite a lot again and I weight 78,6 kilograms. On the first print out my fat percentage is 46,3 and on the last 24,9. During those weighing evenings you also got tips about dieting and sports, but the best thing of all was the possibility to talk to people who were experiencing the same thing as myself. Nearly no one has experience with this device and there is a lot of incomprehension. Other people with a balloon know how much of a battle each day is. I have felt bad for a long time about the balloon having to be removed and pessimists told me I would certainly gain weight again. But on the day itself I was ready for it and I felt sure I would be all right. I'm so happy with my new body. Walking the stairs, riding a bike, it's all so much easier now. I have more energy, feel prettier and more feminine. When I sat in the garden in my shorts and I had to go out for some shopping, I felt obliged to change clothes. But not anymore.

New clothes
In the time I had the balloon I didn't buy any new clothes save for a black pair of trousers. I took in my existing clothes and continued wearing them. When I reached my preferred weight, I bought a new wardrobe. In the shop it turned out I had size 38. I chose for a new style of clothes and no longer had to hide my thighs and hips. My self-confidence grows with each day.

On Wednesday 20 June the balloon was taken out. Since that time I have kept my weight in balance. I have now reached a point where I can carefully experiment. A few days ago at a birthday party I ate two pieces of toast with French cheese. But I stay on the lookout. I have a tendency to grow fat and eating is still - like it always was - a means of consolation. For the time being, I go to every weighing session. I need that straw and I grant myself that luxury.'

Kind regards,
Bianca Lodder

case study - bianca lodder

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