sarahrob
New Member
This time tomorrow, all being well, I'll have been banded. Seems as good a time as any to reflect on how I got here... Plus I'm off work today and daytime TV is just awful, this gives me something to do!
I have always been fat. I was a fat child, a fat teenager and I'm a fat adult. My parents are both extremely fat, as are their families.
Growing up I gained a stone a year, until I was 25 and weighed 25 stone. I had short-term success with most diets, losing a couple of stone only to fall off the diet wagon and land in a heap of lard, weighing more than I did before the diet started.
The only time I lost a significant amount of weight was in 2010 - I dropped from 26 stone to 21 stone-odd, seemingly without trying. Sadly, I didn't have a fairy godmother, I had cervical cancer. It took me a VERY long time to convince a doctor there was something wrong (it's not like I didn't have the weight to lose, after all), but thankfully a minor op removed the tumour and all was well. Sadly I regained the weight I'd lost, and I've held steady at around 25 stone since then.
I've been thinking about weight loss surgery for a while. I have had consultations with a few different providers, before deciding that a gastric band was the best option for me, and THG was my preferred provider.
Even having made the decision, I put off booking the surgery for a few months. I was in a relationship with a guy who liked me fat, and he was vehemently opposed to me getting any form of weight loss surgery. We split up in April for a variety of reasons, but the surgery still wasn't a priority for me.
My parents divorced when I was in my late 20s. My dad remarried and cut all contact with me, so we'd not spoken in the best part of a decade. Earlier this year I found out he has terminal lung cancer. I decided to make contact with him, fully prepared for rejection, but he was glad of the opportunity to get his ducks in a row, and we now see each other most sundays.
I couldn't get my head round the fact that my dad and my stepmum both still smoke. How on earth can you watch someone die of lung cancer and still light up?
I was discussing this with a friend who smokes. As a non-smoker I just couldn't understand the urge. She none too politely pointed out that my mum's family all have type 2 diabetes. I've had an aunty die of heart disease directly related to her obesity, and my mum's sisters all have varying degrees of health issues related to their weight and their diabetes. Doesn't stop me shovelling cream cakes down my neck.
The realisation that I was killing myself wasn't exactly a surprise, but it was still hard to accept. On June 29th I booked my gastric band operation via THG. My BMI was too high for me to have the surgery at Dolan Park, so I'll be having it at the Nuffield in Leeds.
I've told my mum and a couple of my closest friends, but that's all. I don't know why I'm reluctant to tell anyone else - maybe at some point I'll be happier to tell them, who knows?
It feels odd to have something so enormous happening in my life without discussing it. That's one of the reasons I'm so happy to have found this site - it lets me obsess as much as I want to!
So... 5 weeks of pre-op dieting, I am two stone lighter and heartily sick of yogurt. I can't wait to get to grips with the band and the new normal, and I'm ridiculously excited about tomorrow. I'm a little bit nervy, but mostly excited. I love seeing all the diaries on here and can't wait to take up a place on the losers bench
I have always been fat. I was a fat child, a fat teenager and I'm a fat adult. My parents are both extremely fat, as are their families.
Growing up I gained a stone a year, until I was 25 and weighed 25 stone. I had short-term success with most diets, losing a couple of stone only to fall off the diet wagon and land in a heap of lard, weighing more than I did before the diet started.
The only time I lost a significant amount of weight was in 2010 - I dropped from 26 stone to 21 stone-odd, seemingly without trying. Sadly, I didn't have a fairy godmother, I had cervical cancer. It took me a VERY long time to convince a doctor there was something wrong (it's not like I didn't have the weight to lose, after all), but thankfully a minor op removed the tumour and all was well. Sadly I regained the weight I'd lost, and I've held steady at around 25 stone since then.
I've been thinking about weight loss surgery for a while. I have had consultations with a few different providers, before deciding that a gastric band was the best option for me, and THG was my preferred provider.
Even having made the decision, I put off booking the surgery for a few months. I was in a relationship with a guy who liked me fat, and he was vehemently opposed to me getting any form of weight loss surgery. We split up in April for a variety of reasons, but the surgery still wasn't a priority for me.
My parents divorced when I was in my late 20s. My dad remarried and cut all contact with me, so we'd not spoken in the best part of a decade. Earlier this year I found out he has terminal lung cancer. I decided to make contact with him, fully prepared for rejection, but he was glad of the opportunity to get his ducks in a row, and we now see each other most sundays.
I couldn't get my head round the fact that my dad and my stepmum both still smoke. How on earth can you watch someone die of lung cancer and still light up?
I was discussing this with a friend who smokes. As a non-smoker I just couldn't understand the urge. She none too politely pointed out that my mum's family all have type 2 diabetes. I've had an aunty die of heart disease directly related to her obesity, and my mum's sisters all have varying degrees of health issues related to their weight and their diabetes. Doesn't stop me shovelling cream cakes down my neck.
The realisation that I was killing myself wasn't exactly a surprise, but it was still hard to accept. On June 29th I booked my gastric band operation via THG. My BMI was too high for me to have the surgery at Dolan Park, so I'll be having it at the Nuffield in Leeds.
I've told my mum and a couple of my closest friends, but that's all. I don't know why I'm reluctant to tell anyone else - maybe at some point I'll be happier to tell them, who knows?
It feels odd to have something so enormous happening in my life without discussing it. That's one of the reasons I'm so happy to have found this site - it lets me obsess as much as I want to!
So... 5 weeks of pre-op dieting, I am two stone lighter and heartily sick of yogurt. I can't wait to get to grips with the band and the new normal, and I'm ridiculously excited about tomorrow. I'm a little bit nervy, but mostly excited. I love seeing all the diaries on here and can't wait to take up a place on the losers bench
