How I got into this mess

 So I'm going to tell you today how I've decided to follow up on this weight loss programme by the NHS.

In June last year I was feeling very ill and at some point I fainted and that got me to A&E for a check up. And this is where they found out I've got type 2 diabetes. They also did scans of the chest just in case and a few days later I found out that there are complications with my lungs.

After months of investigations and a bunch of tests it's been decided that my lungs are OK but unfortunately there was a problem with my pancreas which looked like cancer so they've decided to do more tests.

Biopsy was done on the pancreas and the doctors were still unsure what was causing the issue  so they decided to put me on steroids for a couple of months as a diagnostic to see if it's got any effect in which case it might not be cancer but autoimmune pancreatitis.

A few months after I did another CT scan and the doctors said they have seen improvement and therefore it might be autoimmune Pancreatitis. At this point I have been instructed to continue taking Prednisolone which I did until mid March this year when I did another CT scan and after that the doctors told me to reduce the amount of pills I take by 1 every month (from 8 a day). Here we are in late June when I've reduced it to just 2 pills of prednisolone every day and just had another CT scan. At this point I'm waiting for the doctors to call me with an update on my condition.

Obviously I've been given treatment for my diabetes consisting of Metformin and Gliclazide.

At some point I think it was December when it was proposed by my GP to get into the NHS diabetes weight loss programme. At first I didn't know what it was and due to my other issues with the pancreas I've decided not to pursue this just because I was taking too many pills and my stomach wasn't in the best of shape. Fast forward to June when obviously because I am taking less pills now and because of Prednisolone's effect of gaining weight I've decided to take the offer and join the NHS diabetes weight loss program so I talked to my GP about it. I had a meeting with them where I've been told what it consists of and how it can help me and I've accepted. A week later I've been contacted by Oviva which is the county's partner for NHS in this and I've ordered my total dietary replacement test products so I could see what shakes and soups taste like. The order came up just after a few days and I was really anxious to test it out so tested a few shakes and decided they are not that bad however the soups weren't quite up to my expectations which is fine anyway.

One of the conditions of starting the program was actually setting up a meeting with the dietitian which couldn't be done until a month later. The 1st meeting was on June 19th, a phone meeting where I was presented with the programme in detail and then I had to set up a face-to-face meeting. In the meantime I've already ordered my total dietary replacement products so I was pretty much ready to go.