Hi,
Thought I would just introduce myself after lurking for quite a while. My journey to here has it seems been easier than many others, but still very frustrating over many years. My weight has been a problem for a number of years despite trying numerous diets. Like a lot of blokes we never tend to go to the doctors even though we have at least one annual near death experience with “man-flu”. However a couple of years ago I stumbled across my current GP in one of those rare visits to the doctors, I didn't have a set GP at this practice and saw whoever was available, my luck was definitely in on this day and the GP I saw then has been the only GP I will see now when I go there as I trust him totally and he has never let me down.
After dealing with my initial reason for we discussed my current weight and how it was impacting my life. A previous GP had said to me, if you lose X amount I’ll put you on tablets to help you lose weight! If losing the weight was that easy why would I need tablets?
This time my GP came right out and said basically, you have two options, surgery or tablets, any thoughts on where you want to go? I decided to take the non-surgical route and was put on Orlistat. He said he was pleased I had decided to go this route first, 18 months later and after seeing the dietitian a few times they were no longer having any effect on me and I had lost about 15kgs, I was now feeling a bit frustrated and needed to find out why nothing was happening even though what I was eating hadn't changed. My GP true to his word put me in touch with a local bariatric surgeon to get an idea as to what was going on as my GP couldn't understand why my weight loss had stopped either.
Once I had had my appointment with him my mind was set, I had been toying with the surgical option for quite some time and felt ready for it if that was the only option. I was told that I had done well with the Orlistat but I was never going to lose what I needed to on that as you will only ever loose roughly a set percentage of your excess weight, which is what I had done; and surgery was now my only real option. My specialist then ran me through the various options; in the end we decided that a sleeve was going to be the best for me. Then came the only bit of bad news, even though I qualified for surgery under the NICE rules my local PCT as it was would not fund anyone with a BMI under 50 so I would have to fund this myself.
About 6 months prior to this I had taken early retirement so was in a better financial position and decided to get my surgery done privately. A further few visits to my GP to discuss things, another session with my surgeon and a trip to see the bariatric councillor and I’m now 10 days into my 14 day pre-op diet with surgery set for 10th June.
The diet is going OK and I’m now doing the soup and yoghurt option, tried alternating between that and the slimfast pre-mixed drinks but was constantly hungry, so now solely on soup and yoghurts which I find is OK. Had a bad case of head hunger the other day where I could have quite easily eaten anything I could find, but got through it without breaking the diet.
As for any anxieties about surgery, well at the moment I’m not bothered either way, I’m neither excited nor nervous – would be good if it stays like that as this will be my first ever stay in hospital, going for my pre-op tomorrow and have already paid the bill for the surgery so it’s getting more real by the day.
I hope this post hasn't been too long but it was nice to put things down on here and hopefully share some stories with others who are or have been through the same thing. This forum is a fantastic place and I’m glad I found it because it has helped me get to where I am now.
Thank you all.
Thought I would just introduce myself after lurking for quite a while. My journey to here has it seems been easier than many others, but still very frustrating over many years. My weight has been a problem for a number of years despite trying numerous diets. Like a lot of blokes we never tend to go to the doctors even though we have at least one annual near death experience with “man-flu”. However a couple of years ago I stumbled across my current GP in one of those rare visits to the doctors, I didn't have a set GP at this practice and saw whoever was available, my luck was definitely in on this day and the GP I saw then has been the only GP I will see now when I go there as I trust him totally and he has never let me down.
After dealing with my initial reason for we discussed my current weight and how it was impacting my life. A previous GP had said to me, if you lose X amount I’ll put you on tablets to help you lose weight! If losing the weight was that easy why would I need tablets?
This time my GP came right out and said basically, you have two options, surgery or tablets, any thoughts on where you want to go? I decided to take the non-surgical route and was put on Orlistat. He said he was pleased I had decided to go this route first, 18 months later and after seeing the dietitian a few times they were no longer having any effect on me and I had lost about 15kgs, I was now feeling a bit frustrated and needed to find out why nothing was happening even though what I was eating hadn't changed. My GP true to his word put me in touch with a local bariatric surgeon to get an idea as to what was going on as my GP couldn't understand why my weight loss had stopped either.
Once I had had my appointment with him my mind was set, I had been toying with the surgical option for quite some time and felt ready for it if that was the only option. I was told that I had done well with the Orlistat but I was never going to lose what I needed to on that as you will only ever loose roughly a set percentage of your excess weight, which is what I had done; and surgery was now my only real option. My specialist then ran me through the various options; in the end we decided that a sleeve was going to be the best for me. Then came the only bit of bad news, even though I qualified for surgery under the NICE rules my local PCT as it was would not fund anyone with a BMI under 50 so I would have to fund this myself.
About 6 months prior to this I had taken early retirement so was in a better financial position and decided to get my surgery done privately. A further few visits to my GP to discuss things, another session with my surgeon and a trip to see the bariatric councillor and I’m now 10 days into my 14 day pre-op diet with surgery set for 10th June.
The diet is going OK and I’m now doing the soup and yoghurt option, tried alternating between that and the slimfast pre-mixed drinks but was constantly hungry, so now solely on soup and yoghurts which I find is OK. Had a bad case of head hunger the other day where I could have quite easily eaten anything I could find, but got through it without breaking the diet.
As for any anxieties about surgery, well at the moment I’m not bothered either way, I’m neither excited nor nervous – would be good if it stays like that as this will be my first ever stay in hospital, going for my pre-op tomorrow and have already paid the bill for the surgery so it’s getting more real by the day.
I hope this post hasn't been too long but it was nice to put things down on here and hopefully share some stories with others who are or have been through the same thing. This forum is a fantastic place and I’m glad I found it because it has helped me get to where I am now.
Thank you all.