Preparing for Gastric Band Surgery

I’ve spent my whole life preparing for gastric band surgery in one way or another. My weight problems, in my opinion, stem from being encouraged to eat everything on my plate – an 80’s child I was the offspring of a 50’s child born in the height of post-WW2 rationing. It was seen as healthy to eat my full, bad to throw food away or waste it. I was given chocolate as a treat, taken out to McDonald’s if I was good and generally taught that food was reward. Positive reinforcement with negative results.

Having lived in Tanzania I’ve literally seen little children starving to death but that wasn’t enough to make me able to eat the right food in the right quantities for the right reasons. In the past five years since getting pregnant with my first baby I’ve put on 32kg (that’s 5st or 70lb) and I was overweight to begin with. It didn’t help that all of a sudden I could no longer afford to eat the healthy food I had mostly brought previously, or go to the gym. As a stay at home mum I felt that I could barely get the energy to leave the house most days especially with post natal depression and breastfeeding problems, partly due to my breast reduction surgery. I’ve found that as I gain weight even mild exercise has become almost impossible and isn’t improved by chronic fatigue. It’s a vicious cycle of depression

Depression and exercise visual from Ares Flow
Depression and exercise visual from Ares Flow

This chart from the Ares Flow blog says it all and explains what I’ve been feeling for a long time. A make-up artist at This Morning told me she thought I wanted to be invisible. I defined myself as an addict and alcoholic for the year following Bastian’s birth until I realised I could moderate things and my issues ran deeper. Being creative has helped me a lot to feel more fulfulled and the next stage is to get back to a healthy BMI. Not just that, but to live a healthy lifestyle and have a good body fat ratio, eating the right macronutrients and enjoying life a bit more.

NHS in Wales Gastric Band
We moved in with my mum when The Viking was made redundant so that we could have our house empty to sell quickly (I wish things had been that simple) but while I was there I went to my family GP. They were really happy to refer me and got me an appointment to see a special team. They were happy that I’d tried WeightWatchers and hypnotherapy and had done my research. The appointment came through just as our house sale fell through and we had to move back.
NHS in England Gastric Band
As soon as we moved to our new home in Bristol I got straight to the GP to ask for the referral. I was devastated when she refused to refer me, saying that I had to go through two years’ counselling and weight loss therapy through the trust. I agreed to go to a different weight loss group which was quite a disaster with an overweight leader who kept saying it was ok to save up your thingys to have a big binge at the weekend. I found the sessions nauseatingly boring to say the least and it took three weeks for the GP referral to come through so I had to waste £20 or so of my own money. The problem was, I knew what to eat and how much, I just didn’t have the strength, I felt, to eat accordingly. I know that if you eat a massive chicken caesar salad and have a sugary drink as a snack I’ll gain weight but there was no stopping myself. I never felt full or at least able to appreciate when I was full and sometimes I’d eat even when I was full. I thought I was going to die if I didn’t get it sorted soon so I looked into getting banded privately.

Preparing for Gastric Band Surgery Done Privately Abroad

I did some research online and quickly realised that surgeons in the UK were charging about £10,000 (12500USD/11.700EUR appx) and there was no way we could afford that as a family. I don’t make a profit yet from the keepsake jewellery so it was going to have to be our new bathroom money. So I looked around and did some Googling. One of the first price comparison sites suggested that Poland was an inexpensive place to look, starting around £3k and the first agency I came across was Top Medics: here’s the link to their gastric band page. From the first email I knew I had found the right agency but I wanted to check! So I honestly said to Natasza (because I’m that kind of person) “why should I trust you?” and she advised me to look at Whatclinic.com, this is the direct link to their page but I used the search feature, there were about 17 gastric band providers in Poland and Top-Medics was on the second page. Prices change I’m sure when preparing for gastric band surgery but the ones I went with are the second most highly rated clinic on the page at 4.2/5 and prices are far more reasonable than the one clinic that scored slightly higher. So I booked the surgery and it’s been an absolute breeze since.

I got ready for the flight the day before, being entierly disorganised. Mum had arrived at our place in Bristol a few days previously with all her meds but I hadn’t even got a clean pair of knickers. All I can say is you can buy pretty much anything you’ll need at the airport. You really don’t need anything special just dark loose clothes and something to do like a Kindle  stacked with some light reading. No need to bring special food, medicine etc I left it all at home and came on a Ryanair flight that was about £17.99! Please subscribe for updates and to see how much weight I lose.

This is not a sponsored post but may contain affliate links to products I have found useful myself. I may get a small reward for your related purchases when you click through, at no extra cost to yourself! 🙂

6 thoughts on “Preparing for Gastric Band Surgery

    1. Hi ive been looking at gettimg gastric band surgery at poland too. How was it? And how are you getting on now? X

      1. It was fantastic! I had my stitches out this morning and the incisions are a bit sore but some bits are actually healed already. I’ve got some scar gel but have to wait till it’s all healed over first. Eating wise I’m so satisfied and it’s really not been difficult to follow my new way of life at all. I have some protein powder that I add to food to make it better for me and I don’t really get hungry. I’m not losing weight now but changing shape dramatically so I think I’m developing muscle. I’m having the band filled in three weeks which will mean restriction and smaller portions and then is when I think I will lose a lot.

        1. How did you find the whole thing. Its abit daunting going abroad to have surgery but its the only way i can afford to do it.
          Did Chris de bryne do your procedure?
          Was the hotel nice etc.
          Sorry for all the questions lol

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