MissFish

Hi all! Quick question. I attended my first group meeting through the weight management program the other week. While we were there we were told that the meeting was classified as tier 3 and we had to move through this tier, meeting with various doctors and dieticians for a year and also lose 10% of our body weight during this year before we could qualify for tier 4 which was weight loss surgery. I was wondering if this is standard process in the UK when doing this via the NHS route? I’m not sure who else to ask about it. Thanks for reading!

Hi all! I’m a newcomer to this site and I’m just at the very beginning of WLS, so much at the beginning in fact that I haven’t even spoken to my doctor about it yet as I’m still doing my research. I’ve posted one or two questions on here but I’ve only gotten 1 reply so far. I always feel like I never fit in anywhere and I really want to. I’d love to make a group of friends on here that I can chat to and get advice on WLS. There is no one in my life right now who knows I am wanting surgery and I am pretty sure that none of them would be supportive or understanding if they did know. Many of my family members are set in their ways of thinking surgery is an easy way out and you should be ashamed for having it or wanting it (none of which I agree with). I really would like to be able to freely talk and ask questions with anyone who has gone through it already, wants to go through it or is currently going through it. I feel like I’m in this alone since I have no one to talk to about it and I’m unsure of where to turn. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I know exactly how you feel. I have no friends in real life and my family don’t know about my decision for wls so I have 0 people to talk about it to. I also find every group or online community I join I just don’t seem to fit in to the cliques. I can chat to one or two people but I never fit in with the groups. It feels like these days everyone either has friends and doesn’t need or want anymore or everyone is too busy to want to dedicate any time to it. I’m single too so I don’t have any partner to talk about it to. I’m completely alone on this but I’m always happy to chat to people.

I am right at the beginning of the process too. I am due my first appointment to the weight clinic any day now. I’m trying to get as much information as possible. There’s a lot of people that make youtube videos talking about their experiences but I’ve never seen many that soley discuss the food parts. I have a habit of eating when I’m feeling emotional in order to block everything out and I’m terrified I’ll end up desperately seeking another vice or just going back to my old ways. I’m also quite a picky eater which I hate so I’m worried about what kind of diet I will end up having. I plan on writing down every single one of my triggers and then working out a way to deal with them other than turning to food. Another thing you could do that I did is to make a note of all the negative things your weight has caused. Personally speaking I put a lot of the nitty gritty, ugly details down, things I’m way too ashamed to tell anyone about. But I think it could be a good way to remind myself why I’d never want to fall back into my old habits. I know there’s only 2 suggestions there, I really wish I could give more advice! But what I do know is that I’m in the same boat with you on this worry.

The first progress picture I’ve come across (I’ve haven’t used the site that much ) and I felt I should leave a message to say how fantastic you’re looking.

I agree with that and I’ve been saying it for years that the overweight are pretty much the only group of people it’s still seen as acceptable to hate. Alcoholics, smokers, drug users, mentally ill and even more recently, bullies, are all accepted and given a free pass in some way but the minute being overweight is mentioned, suddenly you’re the worst person alive and it doesn’t matter what reasons you have for it, it isn’t viable. My brother is pretty thin but eats loads of unhealthy food and no one ever says anything to him about it. But put us side by side with a slice of pizza each and people would give me the disgusted looks. I’ve seen it many times before. That’s why I don’t buy into the “we’re only concerened about your health” line people come out with. It’s just an excuse most of the time.

Hello everyone, Tomorrow I will be seeing my doctor to ask about WLS, I’m nervous as I’m not sure how to put it into words and I’m scared I’ll be rejected (trying to go for NHS funding). Does anyone have any advice on how to go about it? It might be a silly question but I’d really appreciate any help. Thank youu

Hi all, I’m new to this forum (and to the idea of having surgery to start with actually) so I’m at the beginner stage where I’m still doing my research. I thought that this would be an ideal place to start because that way I could get advice from people who have been through it. To get the basics out of the way, I’m 26 years old, female, living in the North East of England. Single and without children (and many friends due to being quite a hermit recently!). I’m 5”6 and 20 stone, that’s 127kg or 280lbs for those who aren’t from the UK. I would like to hear about other peoples experiences and stories and to just discuss the whole thing really. Since I like bullet points ( I feel it keeps things neatly ordered ) I’ll go ahead with some questions in that form. - How do I know if surgery is right for me and how did others come to that conclusion for themselves? - What factors are taken into consideration when chosing what type of surgery to get (bypass, sleeve etc) ? - Did anyone feel any shame or embarassment about it? And if so, why and how did they deal with it? - Did anyone have to deal with criticism? - Did anyone keep it a secret or can it even be kept a secret? - How did everyone go about asking their doctor for surgery? I have many more questions but I’m not sure if anyone will respond to this post so I will withhold them for now. I don’t want to overload anyone! I hope I get responses on here as I’m not quite sure where to turn at the minute. Take care all

Thanks so much for your reply Jaz! And thank you for going into each of my questions too, I was worried the length of my question would put people off.

I’m brand new here as of about 30 minutes ago I actually just wrote my first message asking for advice. I get an excited feeling everytime I see someones post about having a set date, and a little envious feeling too if I’m honest. I hope to go on the same journey as so many others here and I also hope to make some friends.