Do you want to know your future? Now you weigh 240 kg and you cannot walk 100 meters without pain in your lungs. In a year, your body will be so disrupted that you'll be taking drugs for everything. And in 4 years at the latest, you will be dying somewhere on the street, because no ambulance will take you to the hospital. You want it… ? I did not want to! I underwent bariatric surgery and it was the best decision of my life.
His name and surname: Mateusz Borkowski is less known than his nickname: "Big Boy". Fans of the program "Gogglebox. In front of the TV "they met him as a big, obese guy with a long beard and colorful tattoos, who while eating snacks vigorously commented on the programs watched with his buddies. And probably many of them watched as "Big Boy" literally disappeared in the eyes from month to month. After three years, the "Big Boy" was only "right" height: 195 cm and colorful "tattoos". The fact that he lost weight after a bariatric surgery was never concealed by Mateusz Borkowski. But what happened that he developed obesity to the extreme extreme …?
I was quite a big newborn.4 kg and 62 cm. But as I started to grow it both up and down. I was born in 1985. in one of the Kielce villages in a normal, happy family. My parents took care of my and my sister's he alth. When I started to gain weight, they did as much as they could do at the end of the People's Republic of Poland: they limited my food and "ordered" a swimming pool. When I was growing up and when I was already an adult, they kept asking me to "take care of myself", they offered me more diets, explained that it was about my he alth.
It was never about looks.I've always been a cool, well-liked guy who listens to American rap, dresses like a rapper and has an audition in school and in the yard. "I had a chatter", I could make a fairy tale, so girls and women were also drawn to me. I had no problems at work because I run a family business and I have never got stained by writing a CV. To the people around me, I was a normal person, and they didn't care if I was fat or not. But since my parents told me that it was for he alth, then I started on these diets. How many were there? "Less eat", Kwaśniewski, cuda-wianki … I really don't remember, because they didn't give any effects, or I got even more behind them. But when I looked atmyself in the mirror, I was surprised:what they mean with this he alth, what do they want from me, after all I feel good and I look normal …
In 2015. I said enough! I weighed 240 kg.It was then that my carcass started to disturb me. My back hurt, I couldn't walk, and when I walked, I gasped like a steam engine. I went to my family doctor in Kielce. She told me about the surgical treatment of obesity and issued a referral for examination. What was not there? Morphology, gastroscopy, lung X-ray, EKG, spirometry … It took a while before I did all of them at the NHF. And it took even longer to look for a hospital, because it turned out that in Kielce they could not do a bariatric surgery for me because they had equipment that could only support a person weighing up to 150 kg.
Obesity is a diseasepartner's material
Obesity has been officially recognized as a disease by the World He alth Organization. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in Poland. Already 700,000 Poles with third degree obesity need a life-saving bariatric surgery. A bariatric patient requires the interdisciplinary care of specialists in the fields of surgery, psychology, dietetics and physiotherapy.
read moreI chose Łęczna and Dr. Maciej Pastuszka.Because he had a lot of time for me, because he patiently explained everything and did not love me. He said bluntly:Now you weigh 240 kg and cannot walk 100 meters without pain in your lungs. In a year, your body will be so disrupted that you'll be taking drugs for everything. And in 4 years at the latest, you will be dying somewhere on the street, because no ambulance will take you to the hospital. You want it… ? Not… ? First you have to give something back. We are setting an operation date for October, but you have to convince me that you will survive the surgery and change your life. We agree: you will come back to me in 3 months and you are 10 kg lighter.
"I gave the bodies."It was a vacation, I was carried away by the "melange", alcohol, greasy food. In October, repentant, I went to Łęczna with the same weight and timidly asking for a second chance. I got a chance and support. Dr. Pastuszko "put" me in a gastric balloon. -For you to lose weight and learn to eat. You come to my place on June 1, next year, lighter by 30 kg- he explained. And I lose it again … With this balloon I lost only 4 kg. But I "tucked my tail" and went to Łęczna again. -Mateusz, I don't see this operation with you …- I heard when I was standing in front of Dr. Pastuszko with his head hanging down. Then, what I am going to tell you - he "went around" me like from top to bottom, like a gray dog. Finally, he says: I am setting an operation date on July 5th. If by thenif you get fat, at least 1 deco, don't show yourself to me…. I got so scared that I lost 11 kg during this month. I also learned what to eat and how to control what I eat.
When I went to the table for the bariatric surgery, I weighed 229 kg.Dr. Pastuszko gave me a sleeve gastrectomy. Colloquially: sleeve. There were no complications. For the first month after the operation, I lost 33 kg. In the next 11 months - another 100 kg. Now I weigh 80 kg. And I'm still losing weight … Did I ever think that I would be afraid of being underweight? And in life!
"But you eat non-stop!"- friends shout. Well, actually, I eat when I feel like eating, but small portions, so it might look like that. It's just that I eat fruit and drink yoghurt, and they "crack" fast food and wash it down with beer. My Diet? I avoid artificial food additives, processed products and palm oil. I do not eat potatoes, flour products, e.g. bread, and from groats I only eat buckwheat and millet. I have "phases" for various products. Now for the raisin pudding - 1.3 grams of sugar per 100 grams. I can eat it non-stop. Alternately with a paste of cottage cheese, fish, vegetables and mustard.
Do I regret the operation …? Are you crazy!?How can I regret something that saved my life. After all, I wouldn't be moving anymore. If I was still alive… Oh yes - I am walking in the mountains, I run, I swim, I tell you, normally I levitate 10 cm above the ground. I feel great, I have excellent test results, I have not taken a drop of alcohol in my mouth for 3 years, and sex …? A million times better than ever! But…
I don't feel like a world champion.I know obesity is treacherous, that it can come back. I will be sure that I won with obesity if I stand on the weight one minute before I die and the indicator still shows 80 kg. Because it's a fight to the last breath. But I will do my best to win. Will you bet …?
ImportantPoradnikzdrowie.pl supports safe treatment and a dignified life of people suffering from obesity.
This article does not contain discriminatory and stigmatizing content for people suffering from obesity.
Magdalena Gajda A specialist in obesity disease and obesity discrimination of people with diseases. President of the OD-WAGA Foundation of People with Obesity, Social Ombudsman for the Rights of People with Obesity in Poland and a representative of Poland in the European Coalition for People Living with Obesity. By profession - a journalist specializing in he alth issues, as well as a PR, social communication, storytelling and CSR specialist. Privately - obesity since childhood, after bariatric surgery in 2010. Starting weight- 136 kg, current weight - 78 kg.