chris2710
New Member
Hi, Recently attended my first appointment at L&D, hopefully on the way to a bypass. A little bit of history.
My weight problem started as a small child, mum went to work (just from 10 - 2)and left me with one nanna in the morning who fed me before she then passed me onto my other nanna who also fed me. When mum collected me she felt guilty and also fed me. So I developed a big appetite and also a connection between food and love at a very early age. At three I was three stone, four - four stone, five - five stone, I'm sure you can get the pattern anyway for each year of life I put on a stone up to the age of 14.
Obviously, my family had now realised what was happening and tried to restrict my eating, but by now my appetite was such that I would steal food and beg other children to supply me with food from their own kitchens.
At fifteen/sixteen I went on my first serious diet, this was using meal replacement limmits biscuits and cereals, (what happened to those?), anyway got down to a size sixteen. God when I remember the terrible clothes choice there was for the bigger girl when I was young, it's so much better now. If you were anything bigger than a sixteen you were offered matronly style clothes.
Then I left school and all at once had my own money to spend, guess where a lot of that went, my lunches consisted of sausage rolls, pies, cakes etc. I smuggled bags of sweets, chocolates and crisps into the house to eat in secret. By now I was back to 14 stone and a size 20. Meet my first serious boyfriend and stayed with him for five years.
Then that relationship finished and realising that if I didn't want to be alone, I would have to try to lose weight, by now I was 21 years old and 17 stone. This time I used slender and calorie control and got down to 12½ stone, during this period I met my husband, I was 14 stone when I met him and continued to watch my weight. Anyway after a while I realised that it was me he loved and that he wasn't worried what size I was. So the diet went and to be honest I kept away from the scales during my twenties and thirties.
Then I hit forty and we both realised that I wasn't doing myself any favours, I was diabetic, had high blood pressure and was on statins. This time I went on the Scottish Slimmers programme, also called Weight Management, over fifteen months I went down from 19 stone to 12½ (my target), problem was as soon as I hit that I felt well I've done that now and returned to eating 'normally'. Anyway over the past ten years I have tried Lighter Life, 19stone down to 10½ and then back up to 20. Weightwatchers, losing a couple of stone on two occassions and once again putting it back on again, I've flirted with Atkins, Slimming World etc, all started with enthusiasm only to give up a month or two down the line. I also tried hypnosis, this helped me to leave food on the plate when full and also to throw food away, but didn't really make any difference weightwise.
In January 2009 I asked my GP about weightloss surgery, he said that I would have to be monitored for 6 months and that I should try Orlistat, which I began. Then in March I attended my Diabetic appointment at the hospital and was offered Byetta (exanatide), I was told that patients had reported a good weight loss on this product, but that I wouldn't be able to take Orlistat as well. Anyway it sounded good so I agreed, now this did work in a fashion, I lost three stone in three months mainly because I couldn't keep anything down, but once my body got used to the medication both my weight and sugars went back up. The gains in weight and sugars also coincided with my father's death, so for a while all interest in weight loss and looking after myself disappeared.
Then September last year, I met up with my Diabetic consultant who gave me a good telling off, weight back up to 18st 10lb and sugars 11.4, by now I was ready to listen to sense and left his surgery with good intentions and the promise that if I tried he would help me to get surgery. So it was back to my GP and back on the Orlistat and Weightwatchers. When I went back to the hospital to see my DC again in May I had lost 1½ stone, and my sugars were down to 7. He was really pleased and promised to approach the PCT. Anyway on 8th July I got a phonecall from him saying that my funding had been approved and did I want to go to Luton or Hommerton, I didn't know either hospital so I said whichever he thought would be best. Then on 27 July I got the letter from Luton offering me an appointment with the nurse and consultant on 4 Aug, although on 1 Aug I received a call saying that the nurse was off sick but that the consultant would combine the appointments and that I could have my bloods done locally. Attended this appointment last Thursday and consultant said that he thought a bypass would serve me best because of my diabetes and fondness for chocolate, this was my choice as well and I left his surgery on cloud 9.
Anyway thats my life history so far, thank you for reading it, I hope I didn't ramble on too much!
My weight problem started as a small child, mum went to work (just from 10 - 2)and left me with one nanna in the morning who fed me before she then passed me onto my other nanna who also fed me. When mum collected me she felt guilty and also fed me. So I developed a big appetite and also a connection between food and love at a very early age. At three I was three stone, four - four stone, five - five stone, I'm sure you can get the pattern anyway for each year of life I put on a stone up to the age of 14.
Obviously, my family had now realised what was happening and tried to restrict my eating, but by now my appetite was such that I would steal food and beg other children to supply me with food from their own kitchens.
At fifteen/sixteen I went on my first serious diet, this was using meal replacement limmits biscuits and cereals, (what happened to those?), anyway got down to a size sixteen. God when I remember the terrible clothes choice there was for the bigger girl when I was young, it's so much better now. If you were anything bigger than a sixteen you were offered matronly style clothes.
Then I left school and all at once had my own money to spend, guess where a lot of that went, my lunches consisted of sausage rolls, pies, cakes etc. I smuggled bags of sweets, chocolates and crisps into the house to eat in secret. By now I was back to 14 stone and a size 20. Meet my first serious boyfriend and stayed with him for five years.
Then that relationship finished and realising that if I didn't want to be alone, I would have to try to lose weight, by now I was 21 years old and 17 stone. This time I used slender and calorie control and got down to 12½ stone, during this period I met my husband, I was 14 stone when I met him and continued to watch my weight. Anyway after a while I realised that it was me he loved and that he wasn't worried what size I was. So the diet went and to be honest I kept away from the scales during my twenties and thirties.
Then I hit forty and we both realised that I wasn't doing myself any favours, I was diabetic, had high blood pressure and was on statins. This time I went on the Scottish Slimmers programme, also called Weight Management, over fifteen months I went down from 19 stone to 12½ (my target), problem was as soon as I hit that I felt well I've done that now and returned to eating 'normally'. Anyway over the past ten years I have tried Lighter Life, 19stone down to 10½ and then back up to 20. Weightwatchers, losing a couple of stone on two occassions and once again putting it back on again, I've flirted with Atkins, Slimming World etc, all started with enthusiasm only to give up a month or two down the line. I also tried hypnosis, this helped me to leave food on the plate when full and also to throw food away, but didn't really make any difference weightwise.
In January 2009 I asked my GP about weightloss surgery, he said that I would have to be monitored for 6 months and that I should try Orlistat, which I began. Then in March I attended my Diabetic appointment at the hospital and was offered Byetta (exanatide), I was told that patients had reported a good weight loss on this product, but that I wouldn't be able to take Orlistat as well. Anyway it sounded good so I agreed, now this did work in a fashion, I lost three stone in three months mainly because I couldn't keep anything down, but once my body got used to the medication both my weight and sugars went back up. The gains in weight and sugars also coincided with my father's death, so for a while all interest in weight loss and looking after myself disappeared.
Then September last year, I met up with my Diabetic consultant who gave me a good telling off, weight back up to 18st 10lb and sugars 11.4, by now I was ready to listen to sense and left his surgery with good intentions and the promise that if I tried he would help me to get surgery. So it was back to my GP and back on the Orlistat and Weightwatchers. When I went back to the hospital to see my DC again in May I had lost 1½ stone, and my sugars were down to 7. He was really pleased and promised to approach the PCT. Anyway on 8th July I got a phonecall from him saying that my funding had been approved and did I want to go to Luton or Hommerton, I didn't know either hospital so I said whichever he thought would be best. Then on 27 July I got the letter from Luton offering me an appointment with the nurse and consultant on 4 Aug, although on 1 Aug I received a call saying that the nurse was off sick but that the consultant would combine the appointments and that I could have my bloods done locally. Attended this appointment last Thursday and consultant said that he thought a bypass would serve me best because of my diabetes and fondness for chocolate, this was my choice as well and I left his surgery on cloud 9.
Anyway thats my life history so far, thank you for reading it, I hope I didn't ramble on too much!
