Background

Well it has been a long journey so far. I am 70 years old. Born in Tacoma, Washington and lived in the Puget Sound area all my life other than some times I went to college. 
I am married to a wonderful wife, for 49 years this summer. We have 3 daughters and 11 grandchildren. My oldest granddaughter tells me we are going to have our first great grandson in May.

I lived next to a school as a child and played outside almost every day. In those days a kid could stay outside playing with friends until dark or a mother in the neighborhood called us all in for the evening. I played most sports and was very athletic all the way through college. I played football all the way to sophomore year in college. I played baseball though high school and then in a city league for years. I then participated in golf for quite a few years. I say participated because describing how I play you would not say I played, because that would assume I was in some way competent, but I wasn't but I had fun and did a lot of walking. I used to go to a local swimming pool and swim for about 1 hour each day. I worked my way up to 100 laps in an Olympic size pool. I recently as about 15 years ago I used to run up to 6 miles a day and was very active doing mountain biking. 

BUT, BUT.... all during this time from the time I got out of college I worked in an office and was very inactive. I started to gain weight and most of the athletic things I did during all these years was an attempt to lose weight along with formal programs. I have lost and gained over the years. I have been on all the popular weight-loss programs from Weight Watchers, Ginny Craig, even things like hypnosis. I have no problem losing weight and it is really easy for me. I am always the star of any weight loss class I am in, and lose many many pounds per week. But I always gain it back and I don't really know how or when I started gaining back. I weigh very often but all of a sudden I start going up and I reevaluate my plan and try to go back but it seems like no matter what I do it is a study march back to the weight I was. 

I worked in a Law Enforcement environment most of my working life. I was working on a project at a police academy and the dietitians there knew I had life long weight problems and asked me if I would participate in a two week project. I agreed as I could not leave the academy not even on weekends for that time. Another law enforcement person of normal wight and I were stationed together and fed the exact same food each day. There was no way I could get anymore food unless someone smuggled me some, which did not happen. We both had the same physical activity which included a little basketball and pool. To make the story short, the other fellow lost some weight and I gained 8 pounds. The dietitians just shook their heads. This is typical. 

For me to loose weight I have to live a Spartan life with much heavy exerciser, and eating almost starvation portions. For instance, when I was on Ginny Craig, I lost weight but soon could not loose weight after the first few weeks, even being very strict and exercising each day very hard, like I said up to 6 miles a day running. What I did was divide each meal with my wife and then I did loose wight. I did reach my goal which was almost 200 pounds and paid 5K for a tummy tuck but now I am back to over 300 pounds. 

Now I have diabetes, very bad and am on Insulin and heart meds, and cholesterol , and HB meds. I am slowly dying and can not live a life that I am really enjoying. This surgery is to me a little extreme and I know I am taking a risk and may end up having a worse life than I do now as my primary doctor was not very supportive using gastric bypass surgery for weight loss. She says she has many patents who have had it and are now heavier than they were before the surgery. But reluctantly she approved it and the insurance company will pay for it. 

Many of the things I read about people seeming to have problems and the difficulty of barfing and having things get stuck. Having to eat 4 ounces without water and then having a very restrictive diet seems to be quite a thing to commit ones self to for the rest of my life. Remember I am 70. How many more quality years will this give me. I guess I am still in a quandary but until the strap me on the gurney I guess I can change my mind, but as of now I am planning on going through with the surgery. I will keep you posted in my Blog. Thanks for reading this.