riggs99

Hi guys i am from UK so it works different here for us once we hit a BMI of 40 we get surgery for free !! But it takes time you have to go thru a whole process where they check you for related illnesses etc...which is good, mine thru up sleep apneoa so diverting on to this track and getting it treated took about 4 months extra before i had my surgery, but this was good.  I went to the Imperial weight centre at Charing cross hospital in west london UK see link http://www.imperialweightcentre.co.uk/ Which is the leading Bariatric centre in the UK.  The big slur with Bariatric surgery in the UK was it was always seen as cosmetic but now our goverment is waking up to the related illness and cost to the National health service and is starting to give this area all out funding so this has dramatically grown 75% in last year !!.  Another good source of info for UK people is http://www.bospa.org/ this gives you all the info on getting NHS surgeons hospitals etc and UK support groups in your area.My own story is a funny one my perfect weight was always about 85 kg and as i got older my weight crept up to in 2005 between 100 and 104kg, but my problems really started about 5 years ago relationship breakdown my father dying family fallouts etc so sold house and went travelling with money and never really went back to work my weight crept up to 120kg and then i gave up smoking i knew i was going to put on weight so as i was overweight anyway i decided with my doc once my blood pressure was stabilized was to go onto slimming medication Sibutramine this is the funny bit after 3 months i had not lost a pound. So my doctor put me on this other horrible drug Orlistat after 3 months i had put on 9kg and going up this is when he reffered me for surgery as i had hit the magic BMI figure of 40 and i was allowed to have it.  I went up to 150kg at my heaviest, the sibutramine really stabilized my weight after giving up smoking but giving up smoking done me........My surgery date was 27/1/10 so i probably done the wrong thing by having the "Last Supper" over the xmas period which was going to make my 2 week pre-op diet really hard, but i had a plan!! i still had a lot of sibutramine left so i took one a day thru the first 10 days then one every other day for the last 4 days this worked a treat and my doctor okayed it...i highly recommend this!!, went under the knife 27/1/10 doctor said surgery went very well stayed in hospital for 3 days liquids for 10 days, tea, coffee, cupa soups, juice and slimfast no alcohol....no problems during this period i went from 150kg to 136kg and was in the zone mentally.  After 10 days had my staples out all seemed well and appointment was made to have first fill 4/3/10 all ok.  But my port wound got infected and wouldnt heal properly and was pussing up eventually had to take course of antibiotics and went back to Bariatric unit who monitored closely.  If the thing would not heal i might have to have the port replaced and maybe the whole thing, whatever this would require further surgery and i dont care what anyone says abdominal surgery is painful!! and you dont want to go thru this again if you dont have to.It was during this period i lost my way a bit i was a bit down as this thing would not heal it was my birthday so went out for meal and started drinking alcohol again realised that i could eat what i eat pre-op.  I have now had my first fill 23/4/10 i think 3cc's and was weighed 140kg, up 4kg iam now on a downer!! told to stay on liquids for 3 days and was warned about alcohol being dead calories and given the pie diagram on eating 50% vegtables 25% protein, 25% carbs etc and told to take a multivitamin daily next fill in 1 months time.  I had my first day back on normal food yesterday so what did i do.......went down the local bar at lunchtime, and drank a bottle of red wine as a result of this went into kentucky and got 3 peices of chicken and chips with plenty of ketchup and eat the lot no restriction.......as i knew nothing was happening went out later and got a curry just special fried rice and vindaloo.  I have been up all night fretting that this band business is going to fail and i am going to fail that it aint working and going to surgeon and demanding a fluroscopy to see if its all in place and working and then thinking about secretly using sibutramine till i get restriction, wondering what to do about alcohol as once you have had a drink you attack food in a different manner......generally depressed about the whole business!!!!So after being up all night thinking i joined Lapbandtalk.com this morning because i need online support from people who are going thru the same band stuff with same issues as me, who know what i am talking about.............This is my story.