A 44-year-old teacher who has lost 417 pounds has documented the painful process she went through to remove 47 pounds of excess skin around her stomach and waist after undergoing a weight loss journey that lasted almost five years.
Teresa Parent, from Long Beach, California, has been detailing her recovery on TikTok to more than 910,000 followers since getting the surgery in December, sharing an emotional and raw video of her just before the operation.
‘They’re about to take me back for surgery,’ she says in the video, viewed more than 1.1 million times, from December 7, before bursting into tears.
‘I just want to tell anyone who is on a journey to try to save their life or change their life for the better to lose weight, just believe in yourself because you will be blown away with how much you can accomplish and what you can do by just believing in yourself and not giving up.’
California teacher Teresa Parent, 44, had abdominoplasty surgery to remove her excess skin and has been documenting her recovery on TikTok
The 44-year-old weighed 600 pounds (left and right) and was told by her doctor to lose weight or she could die
Teresa also posted a tearful clip after she woke up from the surgery to remove what she called her ‘apron.’
‘I’ve never been without my stomach,’ a clearly emotional, but drowsy, Teresa says as she remains in a hospital bed.
‘I can’t believe it. My stomach is gone… that skin was literally the last thing of all my grief.
She started to binge on junk food following the deaths of her brother and mother. She is pictured here when she was 600 pounds
‘I felt so sad and I made myself feel bad for so long and I’m tired of feeling like I didn’t deserve to be happy, but I do.’
It’s been an incredible journey for Teresa who told British news agency SWNS in 2019 her weight ballooned to 570 pounds when she turned to binging on junk food to cope with the tragic losses of her brother and mother in 2001 and 2003 respectively.
The teacher said she was eating about 10,000 calories a day.
She suffered a mild heart attack in 2016 and when she went to the doctor she was told she could be dead within five years if she didn’t make dramatic changes to her lifestyle.
The news sparked Teresa to embark on a new diet and exercise routine before having gastric surgery when her stomach was shrunk to an egg size.
In the days following her recent surgery, the 44-year-old shared mirror-selfie videos of her transformation.
On December 8, she posted a TikTok of her in a navy-blue robe and a walker, with the words over text reading: ‘I am so happy.’
She says in the clip, ‘I feel small for the first time in my life,’ as she turns to show off her profile.
Teresa also reveals a few ‘firsts’ she’s experiencing following her abdominoplasty surgery to remove her excess skin.
‘Normally I have to set everything down on top of my stomach,’ she writes in the caption of one video shared on December 26.
‘It was surreal today when I went to rest my arms and journal on my belly and it was gone. This is just one way that my life has been forever changed because of @drcharliechen and his amazing team.’
In another video, Teresa shared her joy of being able to cross her legs.
‘I want to show you guys something that is so amazing for me,’ she says before flipping the camera around to face her lap.
‘Something I’ve never been able to do. Obviously my stomach is back here now, there is no apron covering all the way to my knees.
‘But now I can literally pick up my leg and I can cross my legs. I can cross my legs without having this big apron hanging down to my knees, such a good feeling.’
Teresa’s doctor doing the preoperative markings (left) before the surgery and the excess skin before the surgery (right)
An emotional Teresa wakes up from surgery, saying her excess skin was the last of her grief
Teresa speaks with her doctor, Charlie Chen, following the abdominoplasty surgery in December
Over the weekend, Teresa shared an update to her followers about a complication she suffered in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve.
‘My recovery was going really well until a few days before New Year’s Eve when I started being unable to eat or drink,’ she says.
‘I started having shortness of breath and extremely sharp pain in my side. I was rushed to the emergency room on New Year’s Eve and stayed in the hospital for three to four days.
‘I was diagnosed with a few things, but one of them primary was a blood clot in my right lung.
‘Now this is a complication or a side effect of major surgery, we knew it was a risk. It happens to one per cent of people with major surgeries.
‘But I am home now, I am happy, I am healthy, I am doing well.’
But Teresa said the blood clot remained, and she was still experiencing shortness of breath at times and pain, adding she was on blood thinners and resting.
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