At
thirty-five years old, I am a relatively
young guy. I have a wonderful wife, a
beautiful three-year-old daughter, and a
good job (well, actually two good jobs). My
health is great, my energy level is high and
I have never felt better, but it wasn't
always that way.
About
ten years ago my weight troubles began. With
my height (six feet, seven inches) I already
have a large presence, but once I climbed to
almost four hundred and twenty pounds, I was
nothing short of huge. I actually scared
children, appearing to them as some sort of
monster, I guess. I certainly didn't like
that; nor did I like the way my body was
beginning to feel carrying so much excess
weight around. My back hurt. I experienced
hip and knee pain and I was constantly out
of breath. I have a lawn maintenance
business as well as a job as a water plant
operator and I was finding that my limited
mobility was keeping me from being able to
do certain tasks that I needed to do.
I
knew it was time to change my ways, but it
wasn't until the birth of our daughter,
Amber, that the thought really hit home. I
realized that my obesity was limiting what I
was able to do with her. Worse than that,
though, was my fear that I might not live to
watch her grow up...see her graduate from
college...or be there to walk her down the
aisle. The love a parent has for a child is
very powerful and in my case it gave me the
motivation I needed.
I
first found out about gastric bypass from a
woman in my town who had the surgery. I
watched her literally melt away and it
occurred to me that this procedure might
work for me too. It wasn't long before I was
at U.S. Bariatric undergoing the surgery
myself and I haven't regretted my decision
for one minute since. Sure, there were some
tough days initially, dealing with Thrush
and an infection, but even with those
complications, I would do it all again.
