After losing an incredible 108kg, Bernadette Hoover was thrilled to fit into clothes that she’d never have dreamed of wearing. But the 50-year-old from Auckland still shrouded her slim new figure with cover-all outfits – and it was all to hide a shameful secret.
Although Bernadette’s figure was now a trim size 14, her skin was still a size 30-plus, hanging in loose folds all over her body. There was a time when Bernadette weighed 187kg and had to make her own clothes because so few stores had anything that would fit her. A slave to insatiable hunger, she finally had a gastric bypass operation last year after realising she was eating herself into an early grave.
As Bernadette watched the weight fall off her, she also looked in horror at the excess skin that was left behind. “I didn’t just have batwings, I had bat forearms,” she says, rolling her eyes. The only solution was to have plastic surgery, but Bernadette, who lives on an invalid’s benefit, knew she could never afford the $100,000 a complete body makeover would cost in New Zealand.
The operations she needed to get rid of her outsize skin “suit” included a tummy tuck, full arm length tucks, breast lift, leg lift and face lift. In fact, virtually every part of her needed a surgical solution to match her newly trim shape.
Then Bernadette discovered she could have the operations she needed for less than half the price by travelling to oalaysia with a company called Gorgeous Getaways. She re-mortgaged her modest home to obtain the $40,000 it would cost. “I had almost paid off my house but I thought to myself, ‘It’s just money, what am I keeping it for? I don’t have children,'” she explains. “I wasn’t scared in the least. I knew two other women who’d had surgery holidays in Southeast Asia, and they’d had great results.”
In August, Bernadette packed her bags and travelled halfway across the world to get rid of her oversized skin. It took a gruelling 25 hours in the operating theatre for specialists to remove it all. Having been warned to expect post-operative bruising and swelling, a mirror was the last thing Bernadette wanted on the day after the operation.
But when she accidentally caught a glimpse of her new face in a bathroom mirror, she was astonished by the difference. The dangling jowls and wrinkled neck were gone! “oy face was quite swollen and there were black bruises under my chin, but I could see the potential and I was happy,” says Bernadette.
“I’m really happy with my face. I think I looked older than 50 before the operation and now I’ve had people say I look like I’m in my thirties. I think the face lift has taken 15 to 20 years off me, but I’m glad I still look like me.”
Bernadette’s also thrilled with her new breasts, which were reduced and lifted. “I love my new boobs. I’ve hated my boobs all my life. The surgeon said most people have 9cm of excess skin on their breasts, but I had 17cm.” The first operation for Bernadette’s leg lift and tummy tuck took 11 hours, and the second for her face lift, arm lift and boob lift took 14 hours.
Although her recovery has been relatively straightforward, undergoing such extensive surgery has taken its toll on Bernadette, who found the 11-hour flight home difficult. “I think having so much surgery in one hit was probably too much,” says Bernadette. “I would advise other people to stagger their operations a bit more.” Bernadette’s legs are still not perfect but she has been reassured they will improve. “They will get better. I’ve got to get back to the gym,” she says.
The only regret Bernadette has is getting trapped in the cycle of yo-yo dieting that led to her reaching 187kg. “I had puppy fat at puberty and I had a thing about not being skinny like other girls. But if I’d been able to accept my body and hadn’t started the dieting cycle,I wouldn’t have ended up the size I was at my heaviest,” she says.
“Diets simply don’t work. I would always put the weight back on and it was always more than before. It’s like fighting a losing battle,” says Bernadette, who believes surgery is the only realistic option for those struggling with extreme obesity. Bernadette is about to start looking for a new job and she’s already added skimpier items of clothing to her wardrobe. She’s also happily showing off her new body with a surge in her social life.
“I’m going to Ceroc dance classes and I’m learning to ride a horse,” she smiles. Even though she has been transformed, Bernadette believes her body is still a work in progress. Next year, she wants to have a bottom lift and get some more excess skin removed from her back. “I’m so glad I did all of this,” she says. “It has given me my life back.”