This is just a note of interest not s criticism of anyone, anything just a warning from my own experience that could be useful.
What do you do when you are so far out (5.5 years), have had no support from your privately funded team and now feel lost and alone? I’ve tried with forums, tried really hard but the ‘well researched’ newcomers or those who have had no problems are so ready to claim their expert status based solely on their experience they decry anything you post. Up until 5 years out I had 2 years when I lost slowly but eventually after a great deal of effort managed to exceed 100% EWL. So I underwent plastics, fortunately able to fund myself and very pleased. I really thought aged 57 this was it, a good few decades to actually enjoy and live a normal life, giving many thanks to the bypass. Wrong - years 3 to 5 what a struggle, regain, loss, regain. Demonstrating my head was not in remotely the right zone. Cue over £2500 on private CBT – little to no help. Then bolt from the blue developed a major problem with weight loss, it shot off me like no tomorrow enough to send me from 12 stone down to under 9 in weeks. Investigated for everything but no answers.
The answer came very fortunately but totally randomly, nothing at all to do with many expensive consultations with my team who really couldn’t care less. Yes it wasn’t eventually diagnosed as your wls problem but they made no attempt to refer me on or even consider what to do next. My cousin (a maxio-facillo surgeon herself) was very worried by all this as we are very close. She mentioned, when doing a stint as a visiting lecturer at the hospital in Stockholm, to the maxfax team there how worried she was about me at lunch one day and stated that there had been no problems with the bypass other than finding massive ovarian cysts. This was overheard by a gynaecological professor there and she sought my cousin out to get more details. These were that ovarian cysts were found during the bypass op and were described by the wls surgeon operating as ‘massive’. Gynaecologist consulted at that time said to forget about it I was menopausal and they would shrivel and die. Well oh no they didn’t. In fact it transpired after I was seen in Stockholm that they became very much alive and were eating me away from the inside as they sought to keep their blood supply etc going. Once seen by the team in Sweden who are experts in this rare event the general opinion was I would have died within weeks if not found and treated. I have now had 2 major ops in Sweden and am recovering well, albeit at a great cost, to date in excess of £50,000.
This is a bit rambling but I am getting to the point. As I developed a problem everyone first wanted to locate it within weight loss surgery, had it gone wrong? Well I was a text book case until 5 years did better than expected but also suffered from problems with regain. How was anyone to know what was wrong was not wls based, they asked in hindsight. My problem seemed to be that anyone who was connected with wls didn’t want to refer me on to other departments even privately they stood within their own speciality and had no interest outside of that. Other specialities felt wls was bound to be the problem where excessive loss or gains were recorded. So when I suddenly lost weight, which would have been a marker for alarm in non-wls folk, in my case it wasn’t, arguments were my bypass was surely working well again. By chance I found the right team and the right answers but will others be so lucky? The point of this post is to say is if you have problems yes investigate the wls connection but please do not leave it there. If you still have problems insist your wls team or their consultants don’t leave it there, if you still have problems insist on further referrals or investigations. I stupidly didn’t, yet my unique circumstances (cousin etc, ) saved me, without them I would be dead. We see lots of posts about not letting your weight define you can I add in don’t let your weight loss surgery define you either. It is not the reason for every post op problem you may face and don’t let anyone tell you it is.
What do you do when you are so far out (5.5 years), have had no support from your privately funded team and now feel lost and alone? I’ve tried with forums, tried really hard but the ‘well researched’ newcomers or those who have had no problems are so ready to claim their expert status based solely on their experience they decry anything you post. Up until 5 years out I had 2 years when I lost slowly but eventually after a great deal of effort managed to exceed 100% EWL. So I underwent plastics, fortunately able to fund myself and very pleased. I really thought aged 57 this was it, a good few decades to actually enjoy and live a normal life, giving many thanks to the bypass. Wrong - years 3 to 5 what a struggle, regain, loss, regain. Demonstrating my head was not in remotely the right zone. Cue over £2500 on private CBT – little to no help. Then bolt from the blue developed a major problem with weight loss, it shot off me like no tomorrow enough to send me from 12 stone down to under 9 in weeks. Investigated for everything but no answers.
The answer came very fortunately but totally randomly, nothing at all to do with many expensive consultations with my team who really couldn’t care less. Yes it wasn’t eventually diagnosed as your wls problem but they made no attempt to refer me on or even consider what to do next. My cousin (a maxio-facillo surgeon herself) was very worried by all this as we are very close. She mentioned, when doing a stint as a visiting lecturer at the hospital in Stockholm, to the maxfax team there how worried she was about me at lunch one day and stated that there had been no problems with the bypass other than finding massive ovarian cysts. This was overheard by a gynaecological professor there and she sought my cousin out to get more details. These were that ovarian cysts were found during the bypass op and were described by the wls surgeon operating as ‘massive’. Gynaecologist consulted at that time said to forget about it I was menopausal and they would shrivel and die. Well oh no they didn’t. In fact it transpired after I was seen in Stockholm that they became very much alive and were eating me away from the inside as they sought to keep their blood supply etc going. Once seen by the team in Sweden who are experts in this rare event the general opinion was I would have died within weeks if not found and treated. I have now had 2 major ops in Sweden and am recovering well, albeit at a great cost, to date in excess of £50,000.
This is a bit rambling but I am getting to the point. As I developed a problem everyone first wanted to locate it within weight loss surgery, had it gone wrong? Well I was a text book case until 5 years did better than expected but also suffered from problems with regain. How was anyone to know what was wrong was not wls based, they asked in hindsight. My problem seemed to be that anyone who was connected with wls didn’t want to refer me on to other departments even privately they stood within their own speciality and had no interest outside of that. Other specialities felt wls was bound to be the problem where excessive loss or gains were recorded. So when I suddenly lost weight, which would have been a marker for alarm in non-wls folk, in my case it wasn’t, arguments were my bypass was surely working well again. By chance I found the right team and the right answers but will others be so lucky? The point of this post is to say is if you have problems yes investigate the wls connection but please do not leave it there. If you still have problems insist your wls team or their consultants don’t leave it there, if you still have problems insist on further referrals or investigations. I stupidly didn’t, yet my unique circumstances (cousin etc, ) saved me, without them I would be dead. We see lots of posts about not letting your weight define you can I add in don’t let your weight loss surgery define you either. It is not the reason for every post op problem you may face and don’t let anyone tell you it is.
So pleased that you are now in a much better place - but I do agree. They are desperate to pin everything and anything on the surgery or the massive weight loss. I'm struggling to get them to help me with my lymphodema issues 
