I have always had a weight problem, but then again I have always enjoyed food.  My opinion was if I liked it, I loved it!  My weight had ballooned so far out of control that I could no longer stand for more than a few minutes.  Exercise was not something I wanted to do because I could not do it.  I passed up going to Six Flags over Texas and Disneyworld on three different occasions because I could not make the walk around the park, much less fit into the seats in the amusement rides.  Yes, I was one of the victims of Southwest Airlines' pricing fares when they passed the fat man rule (if you required a seatbelt extension or took up more than one seat, you had to buy another ticket).  I purposely flew at odd hours to avoid having to ride on capacity-seating flights.

I weighed 450 pounds when I had my surgery in March, 2004.  I now weigh 278 pounds and hope to lose more.  However, I am more pleased with my blood chemistry numbers as they are my benchmark of success.  I have gone from a four-pill diabetes cocktail each morning to one tablet…and that will go away sooner than later due to the number of low blood sugar episodes I’ve had over the past two months.

When asked would I do it over again faced with the same outcome as I did in March, 2004 when I spent an extra two weeks in the hospital due to complications…in a New York minute and we all know how fast that is.  I thank God daily for meeting my friends and saviors at Vanderbilt Medical Center.  This surgery has afforded me a renewed lease on life.

Here are my blood chemistry numbers at two different times in my life: