More than 2 years of thoughtful consideration, research, discussion, & prayer culminated last month in a life-altering decision — my decision to undergo weight-loss surgery.

My decision to have Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is a major one.   It’s a choice that I took seriously & willfully, with an ever-increasing awareness of the potential pros and cons.   This procedure isn’t an "easy way out" but more simply it is...   a way out.   Out of what?   Limits.   My lifestyle is littered with limits imposed by my weight, peaking recently at more than 380 pounds.   And without a radical change, the future promises more of the same.   These limitations physically made it difficult to do things I need to do, much less things that I want to do.

Being large and/or heavy invades your mental processes also — gradually your thought patterns shift from "what would I like to do" to "what will I be able to do?"   Someone would invite Dede & me to go to a movie, for example, and my first thought was not about whether it’s even a movie I’d like to see — it was whether the theater where the movie is showing had tolerable seating.

Being "morbidly obese" — a sickening term that I’m embarrassed to admit applies to me — puts limits on daily routines.   Random and increasingly more-frequent arthritis flare-ups have made even minimal walking a real challenge some days, although I thankfully still had many more good days than bad.   But joint problems have been altogether debilitating at times, causing multiple missed days of work — two years in a row, I was hobbled with intense knee swelling right at Christmastime when we’ve had friends visiting and wanting to enjoy our company.

And other heath issues are certainly at hand.   The looming fear of cardiac problems has been on my mind frequently.   Granted, I know of seemingly trim & fit guys who’ve had heart problems, so that isn’t a threat unique to someone of my size, but being this overweight is surely tempting fate.   Dr. Perlman advised me that I was on the brink of Type II Diabetes back in June, which certainly served as yet another strong incentive for a permanent weight-loss solution.

So, the die is cast.   I’m scheduled for surgery with Dr. Davenport on July 27th.   Beyond that, hopefully, the sky’s the limit!
 

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