Read all about it

Today there is a story in the Times about gastric sleeve surgery.  A London hospital has developed a way to complete the operation in a day in some cases.  Meaning the patient would be in theatre at 8am and allowed to go home, barring some complication, at 4.30pm.  The surgeon pointed out how much more pleasant and less stressful it would be to recover at home.  They carried out the first such operation in January.

I know a bit about the media and my advice and my mantra is ‘do not read below the line’.  But I did.  You do not necessarily get a better class of commenter in a broadsheet than, say, the Mail.  Okay, that’s not true.  But you don’t get a more considered post, that’s for sure.

Everyone had an opinion and the general consensus was that fat people are lazy and greedy, why should they (the commenters) have to pay for their surgery (presumably not directly) when it’s easy when you restrict calories.  Or follow Atkins.  Or go to the gym every day.  Or stop stuffing your face with fast food. Or “Fat lumps could save up by not buying tons of pies, cakes, beer and chocolate” and pay for their own surgery.  One man commented that girls in the UK are too fat and men should demand more (not more girl, presumably).  He even commented that gastric bands should go around their necks.  Nice.  Better dead than fat, eh?

These are invariably accompanied by pictures of woman busting out of their jeans and/or eating a burger.  I have a horror that one day I will see myself there.  Because you can be sure that those women were not asked for their permission.

You can see why (if it goes ahead) I won’t be telling anyone except my husband and you, dear Reader, about my op.  My boss knows that I probably have to have an “embarrassing op” and we’ve agreed she doesn’t need to know.  I said I’d rather use leave to convalesce than have to discuss something so personal.  And my experience with Lighter Life has taught me how very unobservant people are.  No-one noticed anything until I’d lost a couple of stone.  And no-one noticed that I didn’t eat.  My boss now has more of a gimlet eye – she commented that I was eating my breakfast (Greek yoghurt, raspberries and carb free granola, fact fans) later than usual.  So maybe this will be trickier. But that’s the least of my worries – I have no idea what the waiting time is likely to be.  And I will have to make my case for a band, compared to the sleeve or bypass.  But before that I have an enormous form to fill out.  It must be 30+ pages.  No doubt I will put it off to the evening before.