Fun Loving But Sometimes Shy Slim Body Lady in a Big Body Suit!!
This Weight Loss Buddy is : Offline
This Buddy last logged in at 06-10-2007
Birthday: 11-01-1969
This is my story
I have been overweight since I was a teenager. I used to be left at home a lot on my own and would raid the cupboards out of boredom. Then when I finished school and started work my social life involved lots of eating out and drinking. Then I bought my own house at 21 years old and with sole control of my diet and a new boyfriend in tow who was a fellow big person the stones soon started to pile on.
In my mid 20s I resorted to appetite supressants from a local Slimming Centre and over a 2 year period managed to lose over 7 stone, getting down to my target weight of 11.5 stones. Life was good for a year or so - but then my homelife took a turn for the worse when my then husband and I divorced and the weight started to pile back on again.
In 1999 I met my now husband, also a big person. Again the nights in with take aways and drinks took their toll and by the time I had my son in December 2002 I was weighing in at my heaviest ever of over 23.5 stones.
Following the birth of my son I did manage to get down to about 18 stone - but then my current husband left me for someone else. Although we got back together the relationship has never fully recovered and I leant on my old friend and started to pile on the weight yet again.
At the beginning of 2006 I asked my Doctor if I could be referred for counselling and he arranged for me to attend a 10 week Eating Disorder group with 6 other ladies in the area who were having similar problems. This helped but did not address the root problem of why I ate - so was not effective in the long term.
In around May 2006 I approached my GP and asked about Weight Loss Surgery and my chances of getting it via the NHS. I felt I was a prime candidate at over 21 stones with a history of years of yo-yo dieting and a clear record of having tried just about every other option. However, my GP was not up to date on bariatric surgery and the options available and my request hit a brick wall as a result. After over a month I discovered that all he had done was write to the lady who had run the Eating Disorders group he had referred me to earlier in the year and not even looked into the availability of such surgery in our area.
I rang the local PCT and managed to find out surprisingly easily that there was a bariatric surgeon operating on NHS patients at our local hospital - but a further call to the surgeon's PA revealed that he had only just done his first operation that week, they had no aftercare support arrangements in place and despite a lot of people being referred to him most were being rejected as outside their criteria having waited months for a consultation and a subsequent funding decision.
At this point I happened upon the website www.wlsinfo.org.uk - Weight Loss Surgery Information. This opened my eyes to just how common weight loss surgery is in the UK - and I soon came to realise that all was not lost if I could find a reputable surgeon at a reasonable price and go private. Initially I looked at options in the UK - but they were weighing in around £7k - £8k and did not all have very good reputations on the site either. Then I came across a couple of surgeons in Belgium that were much more financially achievable at about 3400 Euros - with surgeons who, on the whole, seem to have rave reviews from their past patients on the sites. Surgeons who had not just done their first bariatric surgery that week - but who had operated on several thousand patients.
In July 2006, having thoroughly researched the options, assessed the risks and armed myself with as much information as I could as to what to expect I travelled to a very highly regarded surgeon in Belgium and had a gastric band fitted. One night stay in an exceptionally clean hospital with excellent nurses and a great surgeon and I was discharged. One more night in a hotel and then an easy journey home on the ferry - and I was soon well on the way to recovery.
10 months later and I am over 8 stones down and now weighing at just over 12 stones. I still have another stone to lose to get down to a healthy BMI officially - but I have my life back and feel so good - I love my band and I hope never to be without it. If and when I finally reach my target weight I may have a slight defill to allow myself the luxury of the odd treat - but it will be great to know that I always have the option to have the slight fill back again any time I might need it should I slip back into my old ways again.
My size 28 clothes are definitely a thing of the past - I am now comfortably into size 14s and although half the woman I used to be some ways, I now live life to the full. The fat suit has nearly gone for good - I may still have a bit of the wrapping which I may or may not need a small Tummy Tuck to get rid of in the future but I will discuss that with my surgeon when I go over to see him again in July for my annual review.
Here's to being back in the living - and to whoever the angel was who invented Bariatric Surgery - and for me, for inventing Gastric Banding in particular.
Has been a Buddy since:
16-08-2006 3:06 pm
Total forum posts: 1
Ideal weight:
160.98 lbs (73.02 kg)
Starting weight:
277.76 lbs (125.99 kg)
I spend my free time:
Gardening / DIY
Cooking / Baking
TV / Cinema
The Internet / Gadgets
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