Hello,

I'm Kate from south of England and I am due to have a gastric sleeve on the 23 July 2015. I am on holiday right now, so thought this would be a good time to read, read and read some more. I researched a few places which did sleeves and decided to go with the Bariatric Group and will be having my procedure in Poole, Dorset. I am married with 4 boys, aged 53 and have been overweight since I was 32 and my thyroid not only stopped working but my body ate it, thinking it was a foreign object. For the past 3+ years I have had a fight with the NHS for private prescriptions for Natural thyroid rather then synthetic stuff. My GP (ex I might add) was very annoyed I knew more than her and finally I managed to get Natural Thyroid. This has really helped and in 2013 I lost 85llbs but since Oct 2013 to now I have put it all back on. Lose weight, put back on, lose weight put back on has been the story of my 30's 40's and 50's and I need it to stop.

Anyway just thought I would stop by and say hello, hopefully get to know you all and get support/offer support!

Kate

@ hi Kate, welcome! I've actually been on this site since 2007 but only active since December 2014. I really enjoy it, have gotten a lot of great ideas and counsel, some laughs and I feel a lot of affect tion for a goodly number of the folks who participate. The exchanges bring home to me how human we all are, with our struggles and joys,our sames and differents. I rarely go a day without checking in.

I'm 50, married forever with a 28 yo and a 16 yo. From the Midwest cornfields but live near wash DC now. Had a band, revised to sleeve in January and LOVE it. I love to camp and travel. Have been to 16 countries and 48 states (missing Mississippi and new Hampshire oddly).

That's about the size of it. :-D

You are doing really well @ Swampdoggie ! 70llbs is amazing :-)

What are the differences you feel between the band and the sleeve ?

Kate

thank you! I can't wait to be in Onederland :>

With the band, I would be as hungry as ever, eat, get stuck, barf, and then be hungry again. I barfed a LOT (and usually at business dinners, ugh!). I never learned how to work with it. Never was able to gauge how much to eat and the physics of it is just plain wrong. The sleeve feels like what I hoped the band would be like - less hunger, less able to eat big amounts even when hungry, and have built enough good habits to be mostly on the right track re "good" and "bad" foods.

I have an unrelated illness for which I take a lot of meds and it throws me off sometimes - nausea, vomiting, other gastro issues (so to speak) and sometimes I can't tell if its the sleeve acting up or the other meds. It also means I cant exercise the way I should, or would like to. But overall this has been a relatively easy journey so far for me (though I have a ways to go yet). I have no regrets, no complaints. In general, just I feel SO MUCH better, and more "normal". I was telling my mom recently that this is how "normal" people must feel in their relationship with food (my family are all regular size - I'm the crazy outlier). I mean, I can WALK AWAY from donuts, booze, chips, etc. They just don't have the pull they used to. THANK GOD!!

Best of luck on your journey too!