Considering Surgery...

The reason for the name of my blog is because I have been told by my consultant and GP, my BMI and by the scales; I am carrying a whole extra person in weight!

I can't put a date of when I considered surgery because it was the day I found out the gastric band existed! I did tons of research on it and looked at before and after photos, results, risks, I even watched the live surgery on you tube. Then I saw the price. £6000.00. Although I was a health care assistant for the NHS on quite comfortable money, I was 19 and couldn't budget for money left over, let alone save that sort of money.

I took a positive and upbeat walk to my good old NHS doctors surgery. I had rehearsed what I was going to say and even had information ready to prove I was a good candidate for Weight loss surgery.
I had been to a dietitian, I have tried diet tablets that had been prescribed, I had participated in the 'get active' scheme, I had never lost more then two stone and maintained it. I had always been overweight since I was a small child, whereas my siblings where a healthy weight. So when talking to my GP about it she agreed to refer me for a consultation. I was on cloud nine and so happy, finally hope at the end of the tunnel. She gave me a leaflet with my NHS number on it and that they would contact me in four weeks.

Four weeks came and went. I called my doctors surgery and they said that had nothing to report. When I contacted the next week, they told me to attend the surgery to collect my letter of refusal from the Kingston Primary Care Trust. The letter was full of formal tones and a contradictory information page of statistics about how weight loss surgery has been proven to show permanent results of weight loss then any other diet.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! My GP at the time basically told me I needed to gain weight. I already felt huge and disgusting and my confidence zero. So putting weight on would have been even worse, and still there is no guarantee of actually getting it either.

So I moved on and tried to put it to the back of my mind. But this year in April I had had enough. I had gained about two stone since then, and decided to try again. I was prepared to argue, to write letters to the PCT, to accept rejection. But I had to try. 
My BMI was 48.9 but it had to be 50. Yet again rejection.

But I knew this time wouldn't be the end of the line for me...