Dietitian

The husband and I turned up once again to the well thought of hospital and waited to meet the Dietitian, who will help me to alter my life and lifestyle forever and who will play a huge role in re-educating me in how to eat!

K- the Dietitian is a tall, slim young woman with a slight antipodean twang to her voice and a friendly face. She asked questions and made notes, listened intently and empathised with my tales of dieting woe. In fact she fairly exploded when I told her one of my main concerns was how I was going to find the time to eat lunch, when quite often I don't even get a lunch break..that after all is typical within the NHS!

Our discussion has highlighted to me that far from eating too much food, I eat too little and not often enough, though of course I tend to eat the wrong types of food and both the Husband and I are guilty of not planing well enough and grabbing rubbish for convenience.
Talking through my thoughts and feelings regarding food was interesting and I realised I carry a lot of shame about eating....I don't ever eat anything in the street, like a burger or hot dog, not even an apple. I feel everyone's eyes are on me, saying " greedy cow, no wonder she's so fat". I feel like I can't ask for a lunch break for the same reason, after all a woman my size cant get hungry surely??

Having now heard that after the band it will take me about half and hour to digest my meals properly, I am worried that my job wont allow for this, I have to speak to my manager on Monday and explain the situation...I wonder how understanding she and my work colleges will be?
I have all ready experience from others what I consider to be a form of discrimination regarding this procedure: I have to have about 2-3 weeks off post op to recover, I naturally assumed that I would simply be signed off sick from work after the op, not fit to work until I had recovered. At this point some people questioned this, saying it was an elective procedure, therefore I should take the time off as holiday! Well I thought that unfair, after all if I pushed for it, I'd get the op on the NHS, would they expect me to have my recovery as holiday then?? what if it was knee op I was paying for, again would I have to use annual leave for that?? in fact even personnel at first said yes, I must take it as holiday!! but changed their tack once they realised it was NOT a cosmetic procedure.

So now I have to discuss the issue of having a lunch break... I'm sure my boss will be fine and she has been very good to me so far...we will see.

So seeing the Dietitian has all ready opened a can of worms, this procedure is more than just simple gastric band, its an examination and alteration of every aspect of my life.