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Pre-Op Assessment at St Georges

Moonagedaydreamer

New Member
Hi everyone!

I'm new here but not to the WLS journey, I was referred for surgery in July 2014 and early in December I received an email with my Pre-Op assessment date.

I actually live in Morden but I've remained registered under Wandsworth as I wanted to go to St Georges for this surgery but I also needed to stay on their books so I could continue having regular appointments to manage my Lipoedema with the team based there.

I've done a lot of research and I definitely feel ready. I know I can cope with the LSD because I've done liquid diets before. I've never had any kind of operation before or but I'm not feeling too nervous about that, thankfully!
It's been the wait that has been frustrating, I feel like I can't book things or plan to go away until afterwards and originally I was told I'd have surgery by Feb 2016; almost a year later and I'm finally seeing some progress on getting a date woohoo!

I don't have many concerns about the op as I've wanted it for so long but the main 2 for me are hair loss and not knowing how much I'm capable of loosing due to my lipoedema.
I have done crash diets many times in the past and always have hair loss and my hair is already very fine. I'll have to just cope with it though, many others do!
I have always been plus sized and was only diagnosed with Lipoedema in June 2014. I always knew something was wrong as my legs were unusually large and out of proportion with the rest of me and this progressed as I got older and had hormonal changes. Lipoedema fat cant be shed through diet and excersize so after diagnosis and being told this I started to eat like others, when for a long time I'd been eating low carb or constantly dieting. What they don't make clear is that you have to keep dieting and being careful or the lipoedema will progress; you cannot eat like others do and should stick to a anti inflammatory diet. I steadily gained weight and lost hope when It didn't seem I was getting anywhere with this referral.

I'm so glad things are moving on now and I'm excited to have this tool to support me in living the way that is best for my body. It's about time I started looking after it again.

There is no sign of when surgery may be as St. George's is a trauma centre and can't always have beds and wards available. They had contracts with private hospitals to allow ops to go ahead in their wards but the funding was cut for this in June 2016, so it's a bit of a lottery; understandably more urgent cases are given beds ahead of ops like this.

I'd love to have the surgery before March but we shall see!
I look forward to getting to know some of you and sharing my experiences with you.
 
Hello and welcome.

Thanks for sharing your story and I hope you get a date soon xx
 
Welcome. Good to read your story and you certainly have had some challenges! I used to live in Morden many years ago :)

I am interested to know what advice they are giving you diet wise to manage the lipodeama after the op?

I had my op at St James in Leeds which is a university hospital and specialist cancer centre, with the same surgeons doing WLS, so that did affect my waiting list and the not being able to plan, was difficult for me, and my friend who was supporting me. :(

Look forward to hearing how you get on.
 
Hi @SAM55 oh, so you know my Newcastle of the woods haha!

I've not been given guidance as such as they thought I'm quite well informed. A bit like Alice In Wonderland I give myself some very good advice but I very seldom follow it (I'm working on it!). Thankfully the anti inflammatory diet specific to lipoedema is very healthy and balanced so I'm hoping that with the restriction post-op I will find it easier to stick to. I think it's mostly related to foods that are linked to added hormones etc and that are known to cause general inflammation so no dairy but can still have chicken, protein powders and black beans etc for protein.

Congrats on your progress, you're doing great
 
Hello, welcome and good luck x
 
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