Help Jennifer get Weight Loss Surgery
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Hi
My name is Jennifer, I am 32 years old and I am here asking for your help. I need weightloss surgery but cannot afford it and physically can't afford to wait for the NHS.
Please read on for my story.
While at school, I was forever running around playing football or hide and seek tig or out on rollerblades or my bike. At high school I played Hockey for a time as well.
However it was noted that I was walking funny - feet turned out and walking on the inside of my feet. After pushing for some time and trying various different things including insoles - ouch! - mum eventually got me referred to a specialist. The outcome of this was the suggestion of being hypermobile with a slight curvature of the spine. Muscle strengthening exercises for my large joints was recommended. Unfortunately that slight mention of hypermobile was enough to send physios running. They couldn't help me because it was specialist and suggested I speak to Rheumatology so off we went only to be told they couldn't help me because it was muscular. So back to the GP to be referred back to physio. This cycle was repeated several times over several years. In the mean time as I grew I started going over on my ankles and twisting my knees and hips more. I was almost constantly in pain and ultimately gave up Hockey and most other activity - luckily for me choir came along at the right time.
You wouldn't know it now but I used to be quite active and loved it so this reduction in activity really got to me. Food became a comfort and the weight went on.
All the time mum was helping me fight to get the help I needed but the answers just came in as "exercise more" and eventually "its because of your weight". We then went to see a specialist who's focus was injury and mobility in musicians. Here I eventually got the diagnosis of Joint Hypermobility Syndrome and again was recommended physiotherapy.
Since then I have fallen and done who knows what damage to my hips as well as damage to my feet and ankles by continually going over on them and twisting and with a lack of help and support, my weight continued to increase while my mood darkened.
Over the years I have tried several ways and several times to get my weight under control but as I couldn't get the support to deal with my relationship to food, I would lose a bit then put it all back on and more.
Things came to a head when I started the job I still hold to this day. Various things happened that I just couldn't deal with, my weight rocketed and I lost control. However I came out of the other side of that and made the decision that if the NHS weren't going to help me then I would educate myself and help myself.
I have worked so hard earning myself several qualifications but most importantly I faced my relationship with food and I addressed the issues to the point where I am now in control. I am insanely proud of what I have done for myself and the point I have reached but now I am stuck.
After yet another refused referral due to my weight, this time to the Joint Hypermobility Specialist, I pushed to be referred to the Tayside Adult Weight Management Service (TAWMS) I was told it could take a year. A year later while being rejected for another referal to a different department because of my weight, and chasing the referral to TAWMS my GP advised that there was no referral on the sytem fo TAWMS so submitted a second one with an up to date weight, height and BMI - or so I thought.
I have paid for private physiotherapy only to be told that the insoles didn't work because I don't need them, the issue with my feet is because my ankles, knees and hips are not aligned and the exercises I need are not specialist, they are plain and simple muscle strengthing that any physio could have sorted. Now I am able to do Body Combat three times a week, box fit and dancing but it doesn't take much to put me out of action due to a twist.
I finally got accepted onto the program in October 2020 and since then I have hit all targets until October 2021 when I was told that the weight submitted by my GP was 4 stone less than it should have been (in kgs she had hit a 4 instead of a 7) and in addition TAWMS had two different weights in their notes as well so 3 different start weights and none of them correct. I have been fighting that since and eventually got them to agree to a start weight 1 stone less than the real one but in the middle of the 2 TAWMS had and the one I had, in addition due to their mistakes they agreed to extend the end date of the program allowing me an additional 4 weeks to meet 10% of this "new" start weight. 2 weeks later I had my final check in as nothing had been communicated, I was discharged as I only lost 8.6%. Cue further fights and another loss putting me at 10.4% loss and I got reinstated and accpeted for surgery.
Now I am not getting any call backs from anyone so I dont know if that referral actually went through and I was told the next time I would hear would be for a "getting to know you" meeting with the surgical team. It can take up to a year and there is no available time frame from that meeting to surgery, could be months to years after.
I am lost. I have worked so hard, jumped through so many hoops and now I have to wait even longer.
In all honestly, my joints and my mental health can't take another year plus. I am still being refused referrals despite reducing my BMI from its highest at 63 to 53 today, I am 4 stone 7lb down from my heaviest which I hit in July 2019.
I can get the Gastric Sleeve at a reputable hospital, with a highly recommended specialist surgeon, plus all the after care, with a British company in Turkey for £3500 all in and it is this that I now have to ask for help with.
I am ready for this, I have done the research and the preparation. This is going to be the hardest journey I will ever embark on but I am ready. I just need your help to get there.
If you can help at all, I can't begin to express how much it would mean to me. To get the chance to have this surgery and change my life for the better forever is something that I could never truly repay but it would mean the absolute world to me and I promsie to pay it forward.
All that is left for me to say is thank you for reading this far. Thank you for your support, be it moral, financial or both. Just thank you.
My name is Jennifer, I am 32 years old and I am here asking for your help. I need weightloss surgery but cannot afford it and physically can't afford to wait for the NHS.
Please read on for my story.
While at school, I was forever running around playing football or hide and seek tig or out on rollerblades or my bike. At high school I played Hockey for a time as well.
However it was noted that I was walking funny - feet turned out and walking on the inside of my feet. After pushing for some time and trying various different things including insoles - ouch! - mum eventually got me referred to a specialist. The outcome of this was the suggestion of being hypermobile with a slight curvature of the spine. Muscle strengthening exercises for my large joints was recommended. Unfortunately that slight mention of hypermobile was enough to send physios running. They couldn't help me because it was specialist and suggested I speak to Rheumatology so off we went only to be told they couldn't help me because it was muscular. So back to the GP to be referred back to physio. This cycle was repeated several times over several years. In the mean time as I grew I started going over on my ankles and twisting my knees and hips more. I was almost constantly in pain and ultimately gave up Hockey and most other activity - luckily for me choir came along at the right time.
You wouldn't know it now but I used to be quite active and loved it so this reduction in activity really got to me. Food became a comfort and the weight went on.
All the time mum was helping me fight to get the help I needed but the answers just came in as "exercise more" and eventually "its because of your weight". We then went to see a specialist who's focus was injury and mobility in musicians. Here I eventually got the diagnosis of Joint Hypermobility Syndrome and again was recommended physiotherapy.
Since then I have fallen and done who knows what damage to my hips as well as damage to my feet and ankles by continually going over on them and twisting and with a lack of help and support, my weight continued to increase while my mood darkened.
Over the years I have tried several ways and several times to get my weight under control but as I couldn't get the support to deal with my relationship to food, I would lose a bit then put it all back on and more.
Things came to a head when I started the job I still hold to this day. Various things happened that I just couldn't deal with, my weight rocketed and I lost control. However I came out of the other side of that and made the decision that if the NHS weren't going to help me then I would educate myself and help myself.
I have worked so hard earning myself several qualifications but most importantly I faced my relationship with food and I addressed the issues to the point where I am now in control. I am insanely proud of what I have done for myself and the point I have reached but now I am stuck.
After yet another refused referral due to my weight, this time to the Joint Hypermobility Specialist, I pushed to be referred to the Tayside Adult Weight Management Service (TAWMS) I was told it could take a year. A year later while being rejected for another referal to a different department because of my weight, and chasing the referral to TAWMS my GP advised that there was no referral on the sytem fo TAWMS so submitted a second one with an up to date weight, height and BMI - or so I thought.
I have paid for private physiotherapy only to be told that the insoles didn't work because I don't need them, the issue with my feet is because my ankles, knees and hips are not aligned and the exercises I need are not specialist, they are plain and simple muscle strengthing that any physio could have sorted. Now I am able to do Body Combat three times a week, box fit and dancing but it doesn't take much to put me out of action due to a twist.
I finally got accepted onto the program in October 2020 and since then I have hit all targets until October 2021 when I was told that the weight submitted by my GP was 4 stone less than it should have been (in kgs she had hit a 4 instead of a 7) and in addition TAWMS had two different weights in their notes as well so 3 different start weights and none of them correct. I have been fighting that since and eventually got them to agree to a start weight 1 stone less than the real one but in the middle of the 2 TAWMS had and the one I had, in addition due to their mistakes they agreed to extend the end date of the program allowing me an additional 4 weeks to meet 10% of this "new" start weight. 2 weeks later I had my final check in as nothing had been communicated, I was discharged as I only lost 8.6%. Cue further fights and another loss putting me at 10.4% loss and I got reinstated and accpeted for surgery.
Now I am not getting any call backs from anyone so I dont know if that referral actually went through and I was told the next time I would hear would be for a "getting to know you" meeting with the surgical team. It can take up to a year and there is no available time frame from that meeting to surgery, could be months to years after.
I am lost. I have worked so hard, jumped through so many hoops and now I have to wait even longer.
In all honestly, my joints and my mental health can't take another year plus. I am still being refused referrals despite reducing my BMI from its highest at 63 to 53 today, I am 4 stone 7lb down from my heaviest which I hit in July 2019.
I can get the Gastric Sleeve at a reputable hospital, with a highly recommended specialist surgeon, plus all the after care, with a British company in Turkey for £3500 all in and it is this that I now have to ask for help with.
I am ready for this, I have done the research and the preparation. This is going to be the hardest journey I will ever embark on but I am ready. I just need your help to get there.
If you can help at all, I can't begin to express how much it would mean to me. To get the chance to have this surgery and change my life for the better forever is something that I could never truly repay but it would mean the absolute world to me and I promsie to pay it forward.
All that is left for me to say is thank you for reading this far. Thank you for your support, be it moral, financial or both. Just thank you.
Organizer
Jennifer Smith
Organizer
Scotland