"Glasgow Weight Management Service and Bariatric Surgery"

I started this journey in 2021 after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.  Having put weight on consistently after having my last child in 2005.  My weight was out of control and my overall general health and fitness were rapidly decreasing.  I asked to be referred to the weight management service to get help to loose weight and reduce my risk of comlplications due to diabetes.  People think that having bariatric surgery is an easy option and it is not.  There are expectations you need to meet and you have to be really determined to stick the course.

I attended all sessions that I was asked to.  I lost the 5% weight that I was asked to but then was left in limbo for around 12 months because the NHS was still recovering from Covid and routine bariatric surgery was not being carried out.  This had an effect on not only my physical health but my mental health.  

At one point I remember giving up and thinking "what is the point doing this when there is no date in sight."

Finally in April this year I had the surgery.  Mr Katbeh has been my consultant/ surgeon who has seen me through this process.  He and his team including all his junior doctors have been totally amazing.  I was operated on and then taken into Ward 9C.  I was kept in for a few extra days due to my infection markers but I can honestly say that I received first class treatment from the whole team.  From Gillian the Dietician who has been with me before and now after the surgery.  Nicole the bariatric Nurse who was with me before and on the day of my operation, keeping me calm and reassuring me I was doing the right thing.

The theatre nurses who looked after me after my operation.

The Nurses in Ward 9C who work so hard on those 12 hour shifts and are so short staffed.  The auxillary nurses, catering staff and domestics who work tirelessly and nothing was a bother if you asked them to do something.

I would also like to thank the young junior doctors who worked the weekend.  Those young doctors work incredibly long hours and deserve longer rest days.

I was terrified going in to theatre there because I saw the hospital as a place where people I loved have died.

However, I am nearly 3 months post op.  I am eternally grateful for this second chance of life.  I have lost 3 stone already and I feel like a different person.  This process although long is not a quick fix and it is not for the faint hearted.

All in all I just wanted to say that although the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has a really bad reputation it should be highlighted that there is some fantastic work carried out in there and I for one am eternally grateful.