Thursday 25 February 2010

Magic Pills or Snake Oil?

As we all know by now I need to have surgery, and I need to have surgery ASAP. My surgeon won't operate until I have lost a minimum of 100lbs, and thus placed myself in a safer place for a General Anaethstic. I have tried to lose weight the conventional way for the last 12 months, to absolutely no avail. Both my ENT consultant, my ENT surgeon and my dietician have said that if I don't show any positive signs of progress on losing the weight required by my next appointment with them (I see both on 15th march) then they will dump me, and I have to go through the whole referral system again.

I'm 36 yrs old and hubby and I desperately want to start a family...but until I've had this surgery, and thus able to change my current medication, we're simply not allowed. So I really don't want to go through the referral system again...if I can even show them I have lost a stone or most of one by the middle of March, then my surgeon and my dietician will keep me on.

And so I've turned to Xenical...ouch, that's an expensive prescription to fill...fortunately I have joined the Drugs Prescription Scheme here in Ireland so the maximum I pay on all my prescriptions per month is €120...but as I'm currently unemployed and not on benefits, that is still a huge chunk of money to find each month, this had better work!!

My GP suggested Xenical a good while ago...but I was utterly horrified by the potential side-effects, not to mention the costs involved...and so I never got the prescription filled. But this time I have to give it a fair try!

For those who haven't come across Xenical before, its the double-strength, prescription-only version of Alli (as seen on TV)

My Xenical start weight is 305 lbs (yikes!) - wish me luck!

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