Amy is a Streamline Gastric Sleeve patient who has lost five and half stone in the last six months since starting her Bariatric journey.
Discussing why she had surgery Amy explains “I actually have MS and one of the main problems with my MS was I had really bad joint pain and problems with my joints. So, my extra weight was just making those problems worse, which is one of the reasons that I had my surgery. I was so conscious as well as physically struggling to do things. It was it was a huge mental block for me. just being in a swimming pool or at the gym, even just being around friends I just felt so much bigger than everybody else.
“Now that I’ve lost that extra weight, I can just move so much easier. It makes just doing really simple things, that I wouldn’t have been able to do before but now I can.
“I tried Slimming World, I tried Weight Watchers, keto diets and lots of different things like that. I was also prescribed weight loss pills from my GP that I did try and they just didn’t work.
“I would lose weight and then I would just I would just regain the weight again. They didn’t really work for me.”
Talking about what life is like for her now, Amy said “now to be able to just put a swimming costume on or to put some gym clothes on or to put a dress on and just go for lunch is huge for me because I’m not spending the whole time worrying. I can just enjoy what I’m actually doing, which is really nice.
“It’s been really nice going clothes shopping, being able to actually walk into a shop and knowing that they’re going to have your size, not a corner somewhere that may have three or four sizes.
“I think before I had surgery, I felt like I wasn’t ever going to be able to enjoy food again, and I was incredibly worried because I thought well, am I ever going be able to have a chocolate bar again? Am I ever going to be able to eat, my mum’s roast dinner and all of those things that you think I’m never going to be able to eat these things again.
“I remember people saying to me, you have to have your last supper before you start your diet and I was quite worried. Actually, just six months out I all of those things. I just eat them in complete moderation.
“My surgeon told me that the first few days after surgery would be the most difficult and I would really regret the surgery but that it would get better. For me even in those two days, ‘the worst two days’ I never regretted it once.
“I never at any point thought I shouldn’t have done this, not even for a split second or even in those moments that weren’t easy.
I chose Streamline as they offer the best aftercare and the best pre-care. The second that I had my consultation, I knew that this was where I wanted to have my surgery. From every appointment since then, every phone call and every follow up call everyone has been so lovely. Even paying my deposit was just the loveliest people ever to speak to it was the most ridiculous things but it meant a lot.
Talking about her future Amy said, “one of the reasons that I had my surgery was to help my MS and another reason was due to fertility issues being overweight meant, it was more difficult for me. So, I’m hoping that in the future, having lost the weight will mean a family.
And it will mean that if I am lucky enough to have a family, I can do things with my family that I never would have been able to do before. You know, just go for a walk in a park which sounds so silly. Or being able to pushing a pram on the streets, if your baby can’t sleep, or things that people take very easily for granted. But these were things I was always very aware were going to be more difficult for me and now I hope that those things just won’t be an issue.
“For me life will be much easier.”