Weight loss surgery – Emma’s honest experience and advice
Here I have an honest guest post from fellow blogger Emma who shares her weight loss story after having weight loss surgery. I have not had weight loss surgery but like to be able to share a number of different weight loss stories with you so here is one you may find interesting.
Who is Emma Drew?
Hi, I’m Emma Drew and I blog over at EmmaDrew.Info. Earlier this year I underwent weight loss surgery and had a gastric bypass. Here I am going to share my story with you. Let’s get stuck in…
Weight loss surgery is a big step, and in this guest post, I want to explain why I opted for weight loss surgery, my weight loss to date and some of the challenges along the way.
What is weight loss surgery?
There are a few types of weight loss surgery available. You have probably heard of the band, but there are also surgeries like gastric sleeve surgery where a portion of your stomach is removed and the gastric bypass, where a small stomach pouch is created and some of your intestines are rerouted.
These surgeries shrink your stomach (or how much food can get into your stomach) meaning that you eat less, and therefore lose weight.
Weight loss surgery is available on the NHS, privately in the UK and privately abroad.
Why I decided to get weight loss surgery
I have always been overweight, and after paying for private therapy and hypnotherapy for a year we were able to discover the root of my weight issues, and why I always self-sabotage when I start a diet.
I had been diagnosed with type ii diabetes 2-3 years prior, but even that wasn’t the wake-up call that I needed.
It all came to a head one day when I struggled to walk somewhere that should have been really easy. That was it, my lightbulb moment. As soon as we got back to the car I cried and told my husband that I was going to have weight loss surgery.
I have tried every diet going and the most I had ever lost was 1 stone (14lbs) before putting it all back on again.
I had seen a friend go through weight loss surgery just over a year ago and saw what an amazing difference it made to her life, and it was decided, I was going to do this.
Where I went for it and how much it cost
After making my decision to have it I still had to decide which surgery to have and where to go.
I made the decision to have weight loss surgery in August 2019 and then had my surgery at the end of January 2020. I used this time to find a surgeon I was happy with, and we moved house in December.
If you go privately you can get the surgery done in as little as 3 weeks. The NHS waiting time will depend on your BMI, your Trust and any health conditions you have, but the average is 2 years.
First I looked at going abroad at a cost of around £3,000 – £3,500 once flights were paid for, but I wasn’t comfortable with this.
I then contacted a few private places in the UK before settling on Tonic Weight Loss. I had my gastric bypass on 26th January 2020 by Mr Al-Taan. I paid privately and it cost me £10,500.
Life afterwards
After weight loss surgery you have to learn to eat again, meaning a strict liquids-only diet for 2 weeks before moving on to 2 weeks of pureed foods and then 2 weeks of soft food before you can start trying to eat normally again.
I say normally…eating will never be normal again!
Now that I am 5 months out of surgery I find that I can eat most things in much smaller portions. All of my meals are served on a side plate, and some days I can’t even tolerate any food at all and have to go back to liquids only.
Weirdly I can still eat chocolate and sugar without it making me sick, and crisps are a ‘slider’ food meaning that I don’t get full on them and can eat them for ages.
After weight loss surgery you also have to take daily vitamins. As a gastric bypass patient, this will be for life. I am taking 2 x multivitamins, 2 x calcium, iron and biotin. Some of these are prescribed and some I have to buy myself.
Another really important thing to mention is that weight loss surgery patients suffer from hair loss. Your body goes into shock after the surgery and your hair starts falling out. There is no way to prevent this, but increasing your protein and taking biotin means the regrowth is stronger.
My results
The first thing to mention is that I reversed my type ii diabetes just days after my surgery. Days!
I am coming up to 5 months post weight loss surgery, and I have lost 51 lbs to date including the two-week liver-reducing diet I had to do before my surgery.
I am classed as a ‘slow loser’ compared to other patients, and sometimes this gets me down. Then I remember that I have only ever lost 14 lbs by myself and that not only have I lost over 50 lbs, I have also reversed my diabetes.
Clothes sizing is weird – I was around 22-26 before surgery, and now I am between 16-22 depending on the item of clothing.
The most important thing to mention is that weight loss surgery has not been an easy way out. Whilst I can only eat much smaller portions, I still have to watch what I eat.
I could still eat rubbish all day if I don’t actively make healthier choices. Weight loss surgery is a tool, and I am still working on my mindset and finding non-food rewards and comforts when life is challenging.
This has been the best thing that I have ever done for myself!
Other success stories you might like
Weightlifting not weight loss – how changing focus can make a huge difference
Matthews 22 stone to 15 stone weight loss story
Fibromyalgia weight loss story
Ben – pre teen’s weight loss story
Why I think you should ignore your BMI
Ten truths of slimming as a couple
Weight loss whilst breastfeeding
My weight loss story size 30 to size 6
A note from Jen
Would you consider weight loss surgery? Has this given you the courage to go for it or made you realise you would rather follow another regime to lose weight? Do let me know in the comments.
To read all my posts with tips and experiences of various diets, exercises and lots more then do check out my comprehensive Weight Loss section.
Weight loss is so tricky, especially when the gain was mainly a side effect of medication.
I lost weight way too fast around 10 years ago now, and not to be dramatic but it almost killed me as it caused me to have gallstones – something I knew nothing about- and one got stuck. I ended up in a&e with acute pancreatitis and jaundice being told I was lucky I’d come in when I had…
Post surgery to remove my gallbladder, the only change was a change in medication, however my weight slowly went back on and now with my declining mental health I don’t really leave the house so mobility is an issue which increased my weight further.
I don’t really eat very much, that’s not just me saying that, my nutritionist says I don’t eat enough but I just… to be honest I can’t be bothered to eat any more, and also can’t get over the mental block of more in=weight gain?
Also due to the foods I now can’t eat after having my gallbladder removed and my ‘sensory icks’ from my AuDHD what I do eat tends to be mainly healthy, but to be honest there is a lean towards Carbs as a lot of vegetables and all fresh fruit is *out*.
I have had GP’s try and push me into surgery before, however I really don’t think it would help me for a few reasons, which I think you’ve backed up really in this article so thank you, because it gives me more evidence when talking to them in the future.
As part of my AuDHD, if you say to me ‘you can’t do this…’ 3 guesses what the first thing I’m going to want to do, and *obsess* about doing until I can do it?… yep, that thing. So telling me I can only have liquids, or only have a certain size meal, or never have a certain food again…you know I’m going to obsess about wanting it until I give in(even if I actually don’t like said food, or hadn’t even thought of eating it until you mentioned it) and no, I’m not being bratty, it’s the way my brain works.
Then because of my eating disorder, I can’t eat in a morning, then tend to binge all of the day’s food in an evening, which obviously, I’m guessing, would be no good with *any* type of surgery? and then the restrictions already on my diet from my yeeted gallbladder& Neurospicy brain…. I worry that I wouldn’t be able to get the right nutrition.
But then I’ve also been looking into other weightloss methods and they too have problems.
I’ve tried the basic SW/WW route, that’s how I lost in the first place, but the restrictions on my diet now mean I can’t do them, I even tried to talk to a leader& they were just like ermmm nope. ??♀️
I’ve also had people try and push the injections etc onto me recently, however the problem is, that with my AuDHD, I don’t *feel* ‘hungry’, well, not the same as Neurotypical people anyway. If someone said ‘Oh, it’s tea time, you haven’t eaten all day you must be hungry’ I might say ‘Yes’ because *Logically* my brain has learnt that it is a *normal* human reaction to be hungry if you haven’t eaten in a day, but I don’t feel a *physical* feeling of ‘hunger’. Similarly I might be bored and there’s snacks next to me so I graze on the snacks… not because I’m hungry… if they weren’t there I wouldn’t eat them, and they give me no *physical* relief or change in my body, they just keep my hand and mouth busy while I’m watching something/doom scrolling/writing something. So I don’t think the medications would make any difference for me, as they ‘reduce hunger’, but I have no ‘hunger’.
Luckily my psychiatrist knows me well enough now after about 10 years with the same one (I don’t know how I’ve got so lucky.… before that it was a different one every appointment!!) that if we’re thinking of med changes he trusts me to do research before talking about what changes we might make with what side effects there might be, and I’ve managed to find one that actually helps with weight *loss* the last two times, and they are working, just very slowly, and who knows when they might stop.
The other main issue I have with Doctors is something they seem to find it really hard to get their heads around, and I don’t know why, because since being open about it I’ve talked to quite a few women who are the same for various reasons. They don’t seem to be able to comprehend that I can’t be weighed.
Yep. I know. Sounds stupid. But if I’m weighed it sends me down a really deep OCD spiral, I immediately start weighing myself upwards of 20 times a day, and if the scales are hidden then I have arguments that usually end up in panic attacks because I’m overdue weighing because I was meant to weigh at that time and now I’ve been searching and I can’t find them. It causes arguments with my loved ones, over how often I’m weighing, where they have hidden the scales, my mental health and more, and then all of it ends up with my brain in places we do not want to visit and also my loved ones hurt, worried and upset?
And no, I can’t just be weighed and my dr have it on their system but not tell me because my brain will just be sneaky and try everything to find out what it is and I *mean* sneaky…like convincing them to leave the room to get something or just look in cupboards on the other side of the room so I can peek at their computer while they are on the other side of the room etc… because in my mind -hey, it’s *my* records…
So I say no…
Which brings me to a point a lot of people don’t know… (not that anyone will have got to this point in my inane ramblings ?)
If your weight is a mental problem for you, and being weighed is detrimental to your mental health, you *CAN* refuse to be weighed, no matter how pushy the Dr/medical professional is, it is within your *rights* to say NO, it will negatively impact my mental health if you weigh me so I’m refusing, but I shall attempt to keep you updated using other methods like clothes sizes and how I feel in my own body.
I’ve done this for over a decade now, and some people don’t like it, sometimes I just have to say No, sometimes I have to mention my OCD, sometimes I have to explain the situation and sometimes I have to say my psychiatrist says it’s detrimental to my mental health… but if your weight is not an *essential* thing for what you’re going for and you know it’s going to make you feel crap to be weighed, then don’t be afraid to speak out!!
Wow…So.… Ok… This didn’t start out as an essay ??? and I hope I haven’t trodden on any toes.
The most important thing is to realise this is a tool it is not a sole solution. 12 years ago I paid for the surgery after loosing 12.5 stones but still being 21stone and sadly starting to regain. It was hard I was a very slow loser but did it becoming 10 stone 7lbs. Then paying over £30,000 for excess skin removal. BUT every day since I have had to fight myself to keep the weight off, it has been very hard and I know I will fight for the rest of my life. Is it worth it? For me yes you can’t survive long at 35 stones but I never realised just how hard it would be. Especially as I swapped one addiction food for first shopping which I gradually conquered then alcoholism which I am struggling with now but am almost there. So its a great tool but it isn’t an easy way out.
I have requested WLS on The NHS.
First try I was turned down.
My Doctor then appealed the decision and then covid struck so I am still waiting.
Thank you for this article. I have wondered what it was like having WLS and you answered more than one question for me.
I am the same with diets. I have been dieting for years and always self-sabotage. I don’t know why as I would love to slim.