I had surgery in Turkey.

[AMATurk]

Ama!

I just had to accept I couldn't gorge on food. That was the crux of my problem. I never felt full. I hated my self. I used food as medication for any occasion. I used it to punish myself.

Once I had the sleeve I couldn't do that. It was painful. It caused me to vomit. It made me physically ill (dumping syndrome)

I was forced to regulate my eating and learn self control.

I have not been on weight loss medication for 18 months and have maintained at 9 stone (with normal monthly fluctuations)

Also (and this is a big part of it) I feel good being slim. I just feel better. Physically, emotionally, in clothes, in confidence. So I am very aware of that and the fact that if I go back to old habits I could gain weight and be unhappy again, so I don't.

Do you have loose skin?

Yes and terrible breasts. C'est la vie.

My lower legs are fine, thighs aren't too bad, I can feel alright in shorts in summer.
Quite an overhang of skin on my belly which has a sort of arse shape to it, which I hate.

Upper arms arent bad at all, they'd probably be good if I did some weight training.

But I'm not in the habbit of getting my stomach out in public so on the whole I try to not let it bother me as its not visable usually.

Also have a 'frog bum' Again could probably make some advances on that in the gym but I haven't. Gym can't sort belly and boobs though.

But I don't look at myself naked in the mirror.

Have you had any complications yet requiring NHS care ?

If it had gone wrong, would you have expected the NHS to sort it out?

Nope. Everything has been 'normal'.

I do get a special multivitamin prescribed to prevent deficiencies but I think that is partly because I have other medical issues.

Do you have children? If so, did you worry about them regarding complications during surgery (if anything happened to you)?

Well done keeping the last bit of weight off though, fantastic. Im glad you feel well and confident in yourself, and more importantly, healthy.

Originally the NHS were going to pay for the operation, I think they said the overall cost to the NHS would have been upwards of £15k - £20k with the entirety of the therapies, courses, pre op and post op care.

I had insurance to cover anything going wrong immediately and I also chose a company that had a follow up clinic based in England but I never needed to go but I suppose if something did go wrong then yes. I would have turned to the NHS for help.

But it didn't and I saved them a lot of money by self funding it and I think I have saved them a lot of money going forwards as I am no longer morbidly obese and taking up appointments for issues I had that were directly related to my obesity. Not to mention all the ongoing issues obesity causes as people get older.

I get that . I've had an extremely painful knee for aboutv5 years almost to the point of needing a walking stick . I've lost 10 kgs via wegovy and most of the pain has gone . Can't believe the difference .

I had all that done before an operation a couple of years ago in a UK NHS hospital- not for plastic surgery.

Glad it worked out for you.

They don't do it for gastric sleeves though. And its weight loss surgery. Not plastic surgery.

Any operation in the UK that requires general anesthetic would have more than just a blood test. Pre ops are extremely thorough.

Sorry, weight loss surgery.

I'm just going by what I was told at the time.

Will you get surgery for the loose skin?

Were you morbidly obese at 18 st? That doesn't seem that heavy!

I did too in 2023 19stonr and down to 12. I’m hovering around that now and considering mounjaro. As someone who has a lot of health problems and a lot of surgery in the UK, I felt safer in Turkey for all the reasons the OP said.

I then went back in April this year and started the process to have Turkey teeth and go back in a couple of weeks for my permanent set. no regrets here!

That's wild that you think 18st isn't heavy?!

At 5ft5 and 18st 1lb my BMI was 42

A BMI of iver 40 is morbidly obese

No.

Bit of a wild generalisation there.
Have you ever had surgery in Turkey?

I have .
And the standard of care was excellent.