Episode 1: Asking for Help – My First Steps Toward Weight Loss Surgery

🎙️ The Road to Transformation: My Journey to Weight Loss Surgery and Beyond

Episode 1: Asking for Help – My First Steps Toward Weight Loss Surgery

In this heartfelt first episode, I, Amy Mandelj, share my personal journey towards weight loss surgery. From my lifelong struggles with weight to battling chronic illnesses like Henoch–Schönlein purpura, fibromyalgia, and anxiety, I open up about what led me to finally ask my GP for help.

🩺 In this episode, I talk about:
✅ My experiences with weight loss programs like Slimming World and Weight Watchers
✅ The impact of chronic illness and medications on my weight
✅ How being pre-diabetic became a wake-up call for me
✅ The emotional moment that pushed me to seek medical support
✅ The steps I took to start the process for weight loss surgery through the NHS

💬 Key Message: Every journey is unique, and asking for help can be a powerful first step towards transformation.

🫂 Join the Conversation:
If you’re on your own weight loss journey — or considering surgery — you’re not alone! Join our supportive community on Facebook:
👉 Our Road to Transformation: Our Weight Loss Journey

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💜 Thank you for listening, and remember — all journeys are different. See you next time on The Road to Transformation.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Road To Transformation, my journey to weight loss surgery and beyond. I am your host, Amy Mandelj, and this podcast series will walk you through my journey to weight loss surgery from deciding to ask the GP for help right the way through to my surgery date, and all the steps in between.

And of course, the progress beyond surgery.

Hello and welcome to The Roads Transformation, my journey to weight loss surgery and beyond. My name is Amy Mandelj and I'm here to tell you about my journey. A lot of people ask me about me and what's brought me on this journey. So I'm Amy. I'm a single mum to a beautiful boy, and I've always struggled with my weight.

I remember being 17 and getting ready to go to Ibiza for seven months and wanting to go get my tongue pierced because it would mean that I would lose weight before going. Obviously this didn't happen. Um, I've always been on the bigger side. I've always tried to do Slimming World and various different weight loss programs, and to be fair, I, I lost seven and a half stone on Slimming World before I fell pregnant with Tyler.

So I know that it is possible. And then after having Tyler when he was 13 months old. I got poorly. Um, I got diagnosed with Henoch–Schönlein purpura, which is a rare form of vasculitis that's usually found in young girls aged between eight and 12. And at the time I was 24. So it, it was a very rare situation to be in my.

My consultant at the time said it was one of the worst cases she had ever seen. Um, I'd been put under five or six different consultants for various different things. My legs ulcerated massively, and I found that if I stood up for too long, if I have my legs down for too long, it made the flareups worse.

So, I then became scared to exercise. I having lost a seven and a half stone before falling pregnant i'd, I'd got into a routine of going to the gym and to go from that to not being able to exercise, being terrified to stand up for too long, whilst trying to. Raise a child was extremely difficult. I then got put on various steroid cocktails and my weight just went up and up and up, and obviously as you get older, things don't work the same as they used to.

So I've gone back to Slimming World multiple times. My mum used to be a consultant, so I know the plan inside out. And it just wasn't working. And then coupled with covid and shielding for seven months, like I said, my weight had gone up and up. Tyler's 13, now I'd be able to lose a stone, maybe a stone and a half within a week or two, but then nothing else would happen.

It wouldn't go any further. Regardless of what I ate, how much I tried to exercise, it just resulted in pain and through that process. I've also been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I've got PTSD, I've got anxiety. I'm almost 99% sure I've got ADHD or autism or both, and it's just been a whole new way of living.

And yeah, the next question that. I guess people want to know is what made me ask for help. What made me go to the doctors about surgery? So with that process of piling weight on and, and trying to lose weight, I remember having a consultant appointment come up regarding the HSP, her nutshell and purpura.

And I remember feeling so scared and not wanting to go, and I walked into that appointment and I was like, please, I know I've put on weight. Can we please not go there? I'm trying. I'm trying to do everything I can, but you sitting there and telling me to lose weight, it's not as easy as that. I'm not able bodied, I'm really struggling. Terrified at the time to go out anywhere because of Covid, and the consultant looked at me and was like, well, you've put on two kilograms since your last appointment. I. My last appointment was about 18 months before that. Um, and it, it really will impact. I really advise that you try and lose weight.

And I looked at her and I was like, but I am trying, I'm doing everything I can to try. I'm not overeating, I'm not doing anything I shouldn't do, but the weight's not coming off. You try losing weight on. Well, my morning tablets alone, I have 13 tablets, and then I have an extra five every four hours, six on a night, so it's not as cut and dry as go away and lose weight.

So I left the appointment really upset. The consultant also told me, which I hadn't found out from my doctors, was that I was pre-diabetic and that was one thing that, that one box that I didn't tick to be able to go forward for surgery. So because she told me that I was pre-diabetic, I literally left the appointment crying.

I loud, I was so emotional and was like, no. Something needs to happen and I phoned the doctors straight away, couldn't get an appointment because who can. So I filled out the form online and went through all the various stages that I'd been through in terms of illness, medications, not being able to exercise.

Told them my BMI said that I'd just been told I was pre-diabetic, and that I know I qualify for. Surgery, not that I necessarily wanted to go for surgery at that time, but I knew I needed the help and support from someone higher up, and that was followed up with a telephone appointment from one of the senior nurses who went through everything.

Again, kind of asked. So to be able to go onto the level three weight management program, you need to have done the level two. So level two is either doing weigh-ins with your local nurse or doing a 12 week program with Slimming World or Weight Watchers, or whichever program you choose. And. You have to do that before going forward.

So I'd said, I've already done all that. I've got the proof. I think I tried Weight Watchers the the time before, but I'd done everything within the last 12 months. Nothing's working. Please. I need some guidance. I need some help. I'm at that point where I'm being told it's affecting my daily living. I'm being told that because I am.

So overweight that it's gonna impact on my pain levels. Not that I a hundred percent agree with that because I have friends that are seven stone went through and suffer with fibromyalgia, so I don't. Think the illness is related to weight, but equally, if it is and I can have a better quality of life, then I need to do something.

My son's 13, well at the time he was 10. I want to be here for my son. I want to be able to take him out. I want to be able to make happy memories and enjoy life, and she agreed to put me forward. So that is the first steps of what, what I did. To go forward for weight loss surgery and I will be back with level three, shortly. 

Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of the Rudds Transformation, my Journey to Weight Loss Surgery and beyond. Please remember to subscribe and review if you have enjoyed what you have heard. Remember, all journeys are different, but I wanted to give you an insight into my journey through the NHS.

Feel free to share with any of your friends and family members who are thinking about weight loss surgery. You can also join us in our Facebook group, the Road to Transformation, our Weight Loss Journey, where you can share your experiences too. The link is in the show notes. I hope to see you next time.

Thank you.