Hi folks
Found this site whilst browsing lap band procedures out of desperation.
I'm Kim, 46, live in Southampton, and I've never had a weight problem until I had a number of gynae related problems then a partial hysterectomy in 2007 then the rest out in 2011. Been on HRT since then and by weight has balloned. I am only 5 feet 1 so every stone makes me look like a hippo.
Seeing photographs of me recently has made be so depressed, no matter how little I eat nothing seems to make a difference. I have been on a low calorie liquid diet for a few weeks now and haven't lost a pound; I feel something is quite wrong with my metabolism but my GP says just eat less and move move more.
The moving thing would be easy except I have a disability, chronic asthma and cannot walk very far without excrutiating pain in my feet. I suffer from calcified tendons which can happen at any time, at the moment I have calcific achilles tendons and can barely walk more than 5 paces without having to stop and also have calcific tendonitis in my shoulders which prevent me from swimming.
A few years ago I could swim 100 lenghts of my local pool in 90 mins, today I would be lucky to manage one :-(
I know that loosing weight would help my physical conditions and improve my general wellbeing but as I can't exercise I am on a road to nowhere. It seems a gastric band is my only hope to restrict my food intake to a bare minimum. What upsets me is that I am not a massive eater anyway, never eat bread, don't like sweets, rarely eat chocolate, and have cut my alcohol intake to a few social glasses of wine at the weekends. I don't know what has made me put on so much weight but it seems that nothing I do works to resolve the weight problems.
I am going to look into going to Belgium for the surgery, there seems to be a lot of people that have chose this option. Can anyone point me in the right direction here ? I know there are many posts on this and the particular surgeon but to save me hours wading through them is there a quick bullet point list on how to contact said Surgeon, make the arrangements, what to expect etc ?
Thanks for letting me having a rant....feel a bit better now :-)
Have a great weekend
K x