Bariatric surgery no.2 thread

[Seriouslyconfused3]

For everyone following from the last thread...

If you’re new please feel free to join in and share your experiences

Hi @ComeTheFuck0nBridget and @Mylittlesandwich welcome to the thread. Feels free to ask any questions- lots of us have been through the process now so will try and help.

@RalphtheMouth oh god the period right before it all is the worst! I was absolutely convinced I would die during the operation

@CoronaCurls that’s brilliant well done! Do you feel a tonne better for it? Not tried biotin- I’ll have a look today!

Thanks @Kamma89 ive kind of tailed off tracking the protein which is probably the main problem. Plus I’ve had a busy month so I’ve been more inclined to make something quickly rather than focus on nutrition levels. I’m back on it today tho- protein porridge with chia seeds for breakfast and am planning on something chicken based for lunch

@ComeTheFuck0nBridget I'm 7 days post op after having a sleeve and including the pre op diet, I'm down 1st 3lb in 17 days. I feel brilliant and am healing well, not feeling hungry and craving sugar is a revelation. I'd highly recommend Tonic (surgery company) as their aftercare is incredible

Thanks @seriouslyconfused3

@stylishmummy I'm going through Tonic so I'm glad to hear you'd recommend them! Did you have it done at Oaklands in Salford at all? I spoke to Tonic today and that's where they said it would most likely be.

I was originally going to be in the Midlands but that was cancelled - so I was done in Cheadle. Hospital wasn't great but Tonic haven't been using that hospital for long. Surgeon and anaesthetist were excellent as was the pre op assessment and aftercare is amazing. It's worth the additional money for the aftercare package. Good luck!

So now I’ve just had a call from my NHS bariatric team, with a one stop appointment with surgeon, anaesthetist etc for this Thursday. They still have no date for when surgeries begin.

I have my private bypass date booked for 26 March. Now not sure what to do, do I wait a couple of months and save the £10.5k or go ahead on 26th??

@StylishMummy Cheadle was another option they gave me, did you have it with Bilal Alkhafaff? Did you have much pain after the op?

@CoronaCurls well done you! Seriously impressed with the over 6st loss. Interested that you are still using mfp to log food, what does the dietician have to say about that? Am considering going back to food tracking myself as, despite being Uber active, weight loss has slowed down so much I’m only losing 0.5lb a week! Not happy ...

The dietitian did tell me that I could ease off on tracking protein, but I'm too scared of my hair falling out!

I am trying to eat more real food and less protein shakes. I do keep my calories very low - generally under 700 a day- and am taking lots of exercise so that is definitely helping.

@QueenOfPain. Thank you for the information about The BMI Hospital in Cheadle. I am booked to have a Gastric Sleeve there at the end of March. Now that I have a date, I am quite excited, although it is quite a shock to the system to think I shall have to wait for months, and then suddenly, it is all happening.

I just had my first consultation with the surgeon and because my BMI is over 50 they've recommended I do an extended LRD of 4 weeks

I'm happy to do it but I feel really worried and a bit emotional about it at the same time. I think I'll find it really tough to eat so little without the help of the surgery. How did you find your LRD? Did anyone else have to do an extended one?

@ComeTheFuck0nBridget - I did a very short LRD of 7 days but think it'll be really similar in that you very quickly get used to it & have the huge motivation of surgery at the end! I did the "healthy eating" one not the milk/shake/soup ones as found I was less hungry doing that. My liver reduction was excellent (I was so scared though, weighed everything).

There was a woman in the room next to me when I went in who was being sent home without the surgery as her liver was too big once they got in there. It's such a short amount of time to sacrifice in the grand scheme of things & the prize at the end is this amazing life changing tool.

@ComeTheFuck0nBridget yes Mr Al-Khaffaf was my surgeon organised by Tonic. I really didn't like the hospital ward, staffed mainly by HCAs, delays in pain relief and generally very poor considering it was a fully private hospital. BUT Mr Al-Khaffaf was excellent and the hospital is a very small part of it.

I'm day 8 and feeling great!

I did a 2 week lrd. Healthy eating rather than shakes tho. First few days were brutal but after that it gets a lot easier

Thanks @kamma89 and @seriouslyconfused3 that does make me feel a bit better that you found it okay after the first few days.

I'll definitely do it because it must be awful, waking up to find out they weren't able to do the operation, I bet she was gutted.

I did the liquid shakes for 2 weeks because I was scared of eating too much with the food option.

It was fine after the first few days- I'm sure 4 weeks will be ok.

You will be so motivated by that point it will be fine.

I had Mr Al-Khaffaf too.

I didn’t really have any problems with The Alexandra, they do seem to have a lot of Assistant Practitioners on their staff but they’re not HCA’s, they’re registered with the NMC, just a grade below Nurses, and they work under the supervision of RN’s. My pre op was done by an assistant practitioner rather than a registered nurse too.

I might have got a different experience though as the buzzer in my room was broken, so every time I pressed it, it activated the emergency alarm rather than the nurse call buzzer, so they attended promptly every time 😂😂

I had a brilliant HCA overnight who helped me to the loo, get washed, change my underwear and into my own PJ’s and she sent the RN in straight after with my pain relief. After that dose of oramorph in the night I was just on calpol and codeine after that and pretty much independent as my IV fluids finished a short time later.

I was kinda left to my own devices a lot, but I was okay with it, I knew the more I did for myself the sooner I’d be able to go home and the better the recovery I’d have. Communication could have been better, I felt I was kept guessing a lot of the time about what happens next, what I was meant to be doing, the ward hostess brought me solid food menus in on two occasions which I knew I couldn’t have, and when my take home meds arrived from pharmacy it was kinda like “oh, you can go home now”, yet my partner needed to set off from two hours away to pick me up.

I’m an NHS nurse and had no prior experience with private healthcare so didn’t really go in with any expectations.

I’ve not heard from Tonic in a few weeks now, no idea if they’re meant to still be contacting me or what. I’m 7 weeks post op and contact seems to have ceased. My “six week check” over the phone with the surgeon, isn’t actually happening until I’m three months post op.

None of it is perfect, I’m just glad ultimately that my procedure is done, and I’m on my way to a healthier life.

Thank you for sharing @queenofpain it's funny you said you haven't heard much from Tonic as when I was reading reviews they seemed to get a lot of praise for checking in a lot, have you had your appointments with a Psychotherapist?

I've never had any kind of surgery or been in hospital before, the thought of needing help with personal care and a drip and things actually makes me feel a bit sick.

Honestly, it may be that the contact was scheduled to become more spaced out once you get past 6 weeks post op, I can’t remember. I’m fine though, tbh. After the first two weeks you’ll usually get signed off by their nurse and then it’s just the office girls checking in once a week, and if you’ve any issues they then signpost to the other professionals to get in touch as appropriate, so you then get a call back from the dietician/psychotherapist/PT/surgeon as required.
Yes, I had the initial contact with Helen the psychotherapist with all the form filling, and then have spoken to her at point throughout the post op stage. She’s lovely, and has given me plenty of reassurance, but I wouldn’t be expecting in depth psychotherapy tbh, but she was useful to talk to when I had feelings of sadness at food I felt I was missing out on, and got a bit preoccupied with cooking shows and all that stuff. I had spent a year in Eating disorder therapy before decided to have the surgery so I’d already done a lot of the topics to death anyway, and had good insight into my problem areas and binge triggers.

The HCA didn’t need to help me get dressed, she kinda just went across the other side of the room and got the things out of my case that I needed (under my direction) so I wasn’t bending for them, unhooked me from my drip and hovered around my room tidying my bed and pillows etc while I was in the bathroom in case I felt funny and needed her. Then she helped me get back into bed, put the pressure boot things back on my bed, got me fresh water and sorted my analgesia. Nobody ever went into the toilet with me, hah.

Some of your stories are so inspiring!

Hi @GaryUnicorn I hope you’re finding them helpful. Is it something you’re thinking about?

Hi all, just checking in before the weekend - hope everyone is ok. I only lost 1lb this week but it has taken me to a bmi of 34.9 - under 35 for first time in many years!! Very pleased and hoping for slightly larger weight loss next week.

@MindBodyChocolate Still a loss, well done!

Had my call with the NHS team yesterday and good to go but still no idea when surgery will start so sticking with the private route - one month to go! As the weather is getting nicer, so motivated to look and feel healthier.

Have a good weekend all.

Hi I have been following this thread since the beginning of the last one, I thought I would delurk to introduce myself and ask a few questions.

I am currently 20 stone 7 (approximately) BMI 45 and have been stable at this weight for a while, every since I accepted this weight and stopped trying to diet - which only ever resulted in me getting heavier.
This is not the same as being happy with it though. I don't have any health problems at the moment but I am very unfit and there are lots of things I can't do because of my weight. Also I worry that I will start to get health problems as I get older.

I sometimes consider Bariatric surgery but I am still not sure if it is for me, so I have found reading your experiences interesting and helpful and am going to look am some of the resources mentioned to do some more research.

The main things I worry about (and this is where the questions come in) are:

• Loose skin. I am 38 and I don't want a saggy face, neck and arms. I am not so worried about the rest of my body as I can keep it covered and it looks horrible due to the fat so looking horrible due to loose skin won't make a difference. Do some of you mind sharing your age and how your skin has responded to loosing weight quickly following surgery?

• The emotional impact of the change in my relationship with food. My eating is not too disordered, I just have a large appetite and enjoy feeling full and eat too many carbs and not enough fruit and veg. But I often look forward to dinner, it sounds really sad but it is often the highlight of my day especially with lockdown, I can spend all day looking forward to dinner when we are having something I really like. Some posters have mentioned seeing phycologists before the operation - is this a standard part of the process and do they help address the emotional impact of having the operation?

The biggest hurdle I see at the moment is that I don't think DH will approve so I don't dare mention it to him at the moment. I would obviously need his agreement to spend this amount of our savings and his support. He might surprise me and be ok with it but I think his initial reaction wouldn't be good. He has never had a weight problem and it feels like there is a lot of stigma attached to weight loss surgery.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Hi @FalconQueen - you're right to do lots of research. Although I'm extremely pleased with my decision everyone has to make their own choice. It is a lifelong commitment.

In response to your questions, here's my tuppence worth.

• loose skin: I've nearly lost 4 stone and no loose skin yet. I think my upper arms might go a bit flappy but my face just looks slimmer, younger and better. In my view having loose skin and being healthy is much preferable to being obese. But I appreciate that others may think differently. And there is always the plastic surgery option... Again, not for me but I understand why others choose this.

• I'd really recommend readingLiving with Bariatric surgery by Denise Ratcliffe. She's a psychologist and it's a very helpful read. Some providers offer psychologist support, some don't. My experience has been definitely less interest in food. I used to be constantly thinking about meals - I'd be planning lunch as soon as I got to work - but now I don't think about it much. I haven't totally lost interest in it unlike some, but my thoughts aren't full of food.

• you might be surprised how your dp reacts. I was expecting a big debate but when I said 'I am considering WLS' my dog's reply was 'i think that's a good idea'!! I was in denial about how big I was and was expecting to be told I was nowhere near big enough. It never happened 😅 Also if you do think wls is right for you, then do it for you. There may be a stigma about the surgery but you don't have to broadcast the fact you've had it. And there sure is a stigma attached to being obese, the strength of which I'm only starting to realize now I'm losing weight.

Good luck with your journey.