Everytime I failed at loosing and keeping off weight, I fleetingly would think of gastric band and then rule it out ..... lets be honest, its rather excessive, its surgery for goodness sake, I'm perfectly happy otherwise....and for everyone who believes its the easy option - please do your research before you make such foot-in-mouth comments!
Fern Britton (a UK presenter) was a stunning large lady, but an even stunnier slimmer lady following WLS.... got me thinking somemore! For some reason WLS here in Australia seems more accepted than in the UK, I have 3 good friends who have had surgery, so had lots of people to talk this over with. Knowing my PHI (private health insurance) would cover all but the gap and excess, made the decision more possible...
So after much thought, agonising and research I made an appt with Dr Dolan, a well respected bariatric surgeon here in Perth. He is clearly a busy man as had to wait over 4 weeks for an appt to see him - 17 March 2013!
I took my husband along for the consultation, for two reasons really:
- I wanted him to be 100% happy with me having the surgery, I wanted him to hear about the successes, failures and possible problems first hand, so between us we could make an informed decision;
- Secondly, because at times he has to be "my ears" being hearing impaired means that sometimes I miss key bits of information, and bearing in mind Dr Dolan has a very strong accent could cause me some issues.
Well I weighed in at 100.4kg / 220.8lb / 15st7lb - my heaviest weight to date! Which meant that my BMI was 36 classing me as "severely obese". Fortunately I do not have any weight related illnesses (eg. diabetes, high blood pressure etc)...YET! The Dr thought that 70kg / 154lb /11st would be an ideal goal weight for me (haven't been that weight since my wedding day - 19years ago!)
He then proceeded to discuss the two surgical options: gastric band and sleeve, he talked about both surgeries, the success rates/failures and what was involved - and then said I met the criteria if I wanted to proceed!
I chose the band as opposed to the sleeve, because I felt it was the better option for me, because:
- it was not so evasive, key-hole surgery
- fully adjustable
- fully removable
- none of my insides needed to be cut....
Surgery day booked for 17 May 2013.... I could have had the surgery earlier, but had my folks visiting for Easter and didn't want it to impact on their stay...x
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