‘A new zest for life’

Mullingar man Adrian Lee is eyeing up a trip to Australia in the hopefully not-too-distant future to visit his nephew, who lives in Perth.

And while a trip to Oz to see relatives is a routine activity for many Irish people, for Adrian, it is something that, Covid or no Covid, would have been an impossibility just over a year ago.

Last summer, the hugely popular member of the teaching staff at St Joseph’s Secondary School, Rochfortbridge clocked 30 stone on the weighing scales.

“I would have done a lot of flying abroad over the years, to Europe and beyond, with basketball teams or on holidays,” Adrian (55) told the Westmeath Examiner last week. “But I haven’t done it for the last 10 years, simply from the point of view of being able to get on a plane and sit down. Then there’s the very act of walking around and getting to places – you need to be in the whole of your health.

“I have a nephew in Perth in Australia, and I would love to go and visit him, but this is something that in the last five years, I would never have thought was possible.”

However, the entire vista in front of Adrian’s eyes changed radically and suddenly in November 2019, when he was referred to Professor Helen Heneghan of the Bariatric Clinic at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Dublin.

Following initial consultations, Adrian underwent a procedure known as gastric sleeve surgery.

“There are around 160 people in the country who have had this procedure done, including 39 men, one of whom is myself,” he explained.

“Instead of the old procedure known as banding surgery, there are now two types of surgery you can have done – gastric sleeve or gastric bypass. The latter is where part of your stomach is closed off, but the operation is reversible.

“Gastric sleeve surgery, which I had done, is a permanent reduction in the size of your stomach.”

Adrian said that in the operation, some 75 percent of his stomach was removed. “My stomach has gone from being the size of a rugby ball to that of a small banana,” he said, explaining how he arrived at the point where he embraced such a drastic intervention.

“I have always been overweight to an extent, since my teens. I was 18 stone when I was 18 years of age, playing championship rugby as a second row for Mullingar, which I loved.

“But I’m a big frame of a lad, 6’1” and a half, and big boned. I could carry the weight, played sport, and in my twenties I never let it go out of control.”

However, a chain of events in the 2000s led Adrian to the situation where by late 2019, he was carrying 30 stone.

“I had a car accident in 2004 which resulted in a hip injury, and as a consequence of that I became less mobile,” said Adrian. “Prior to that I had been living normally, coaching basketball, working away, gardening etc.

“I then suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2010, and from there it just started to get out of control. It was starting to affect my movement, and how I operated in school.

“With encouragement from past and present colleagues in school and my sister Marina, I met with Professor Heneghan in November 2019. I was called in the following July; the procedure was supposed to be in February of last year, but the outbreak of Covid meant that all elective surgery was postponed.”

Adrian recalls the “immediate impact” which the procedure on July 30 had on his quality of life and his appetite.

“I found it hard at the start to understand how my body had changed inside,” he said. “But I realised that I couldn’t eat very much at all, or very quickly.

“The surgeon told me I wasn’t the biggest or tallest she had ever operated on, but I had the largest stomach, and I suppose that contributed to the situation.”

Adrian’s reduced stomach size means that one small meal a day fills him, along with yoghurts and a small bit of fruit, supplemented by vitamin tablets to ensure he gets the nutrients he needs.

Crucially, the physical changes and Adrian’s new dietary regimen have led to him losing nine and a half stone in just over a year.

“I’m never hungry. I turn 56 next month, and I have oceans of energy I didn’t have since I was 30. I’m back gardening and walking, enjoying life and work,” he said.

“Other ailments I had have disappeared. I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2010 and within two days of the procedure it went into full remission.

“My blood pressure was reduced by nearly half, and gout and cellulitis have also disappeared.

“As I have lost the weight, I’m doing more, and burning more off by doing things I haven’t done in years. Simple walks that would have left me out of breath a few years ago are easier now. There’s a whole checklist of improvements.”

Adrian describes the gastric sleeve procedure and the work of the Bariatric Clinic at St Vincent’s Private Hospital as a “near-miracle”.

While the operation isn’t for everybody, he described it as a “necessary intervention” to put him back on the right track.

“Dieting never worked for me, and I tried it often,” said the Mullingar native, who teaches history, English and geography at St Joseph’s. “I, personally, needed this intervention, and ultimately it was successful.

“Because the operation restricted my need to eat, it was foolproof. I have done no gym work since July of last year; I have just reduced my intake.

“The impact on my life and whole wellbeing has been incredible. Colleagues, friends and family have remarked how it has changed everything for the better.

“It’s been a tough year and a half for everyone with Covid and lockdowns, but personally I will remember the last year for all the right reasons.

“I feel great. I’m getting to do things I haven’t done in years. I’ve always been a very positive person and very resilient, but this has given me a new and even bigger zest for life.

“It’s not for everyone. Not everybody needs this intervention. But for someone who might, I would recommend they ask their GP to refer them to Professor Heneghan at St Vincent’s.”