Christopher Spalding
“Have you considered gastric bypass?” my doctor, a small stature Indian man asked with all sincerity. It was December of 2005 and I had just started seeing him. He was my parents’ long-time doctor, so he knew my history and my future.
“No,” I told him. Until, just five minutes before, I seriously thought that my weight, though steadily creeping up over the past couple of years, was still manageable. I was 290 or 300, tops. But forefront in my mind was a few minutes earlier when I stepped on a scale for the first time in years. It didn’t register, and the max was 350 pounds. It was recorded as 350+. To top it off, I was being told that I was on the verge of diabetes. I had high cholesterol. I was at the onset of joint issues. And I was only 30.
I had always been heavy, but healthy. My normal blood work and nonexistence of problems had always been justification enough for my over indulgence in food. But, as I entered my third decade, those excuses were expiring fast.
My dad was always overweight, just like me. In his mid fifties today, he became an insulin dependent diabetic in his thirties. He’s since lost both of his kidneys and is on daily home dialysis. He’s been diagnosed with sleep-apnea, anemia and high blood pressure. He had an artery stent placed in 2003. Then, late 2006, he had a mild heart attack. Though doing okay, me, my family, and the small but straight-forward doctor are all hoping for the best. I love my father. I hate what I see him going through. He hopes that I can learn from what I see him going through. I need to make changes before it’s too late.
I’m no stranger to attempts at these changes. In early 1999, at age 24, I weighed myself after a long boycott of scales. I saw that I had broken a promise to myself- that I would never let myself get above 300 pounds. But there was the awful truth. I was 310 pounds.
I attacked that number with a vengeance. I started a strict diet and exercise regimen. I bought a mountain bike and took full advantages of the hiking trails in Monte Sano State Park here in Huntsville. I was a beast, losing five pounds a week, until five months later; I was down to 200. I felt and looked better than I had in years. By that summer I was living it up.
But by that fall the weight started coming back. The next few months were the worst in my life. I felt depressed and helpless, as if I were watching a car crash in slow-motion and could do nothing to stop it. Over the next few years, my weight would go up and down, staying in the high 200’s. Or so I thought. Until that day in December,
I asked my doctor about gastric bypass in May of 2006 after hurting my back at work. He referred me to Dr. Facundus’s office. I knew a little about both the surgical and insurance procedures. I knew that I wouldn’t be approved for surgery until after at least six months. But I was patient. I always said that these were changes that were going to last me the rest of my life, so what were a few months?
At the nutritionist’s I got the awful truth. Before I stepped on that scale, I had no idea how heavy I could be. It could read 351. It could read 451. Who the hell knew anymore? It read 375. I was kind of relieved, but, hell that seemed even so far from the 310 I was at the beginning of my earlier and most successful weight loss attempt.
I was put on a strict diet, and by the end of the summer, gained five more pounds to my highest weight of 380 in early September. The weight came off slowly the next few months as I tried to enjoy what I knew would be my last (gluttonous) Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was down to 366 in early January when I had my first visit with Dr. Facundus.
He examined me, explained that I was healthy and didn’t need the tests most people would need but said that I needed to get down to 329 or lower before the surgery. That seemed reasonable enough.
The insurance approval process during this time, although slow, went smoothly and just as planned. I talked with my doctor about my diet plans. He understood the reasons for the necessary weight loss, but thought it ironic that one could be too heavy to have weight loss surgery. I told him that I thought it was a good idea. If I couldn’t find the discipline to lose this required weight, maybe I didn’t have the discipline to have the surgery. He agreed.
Two months later in March 2007, my insurance has been approved and my surgery date finalized. I had my pre-op appointment with Dr. Facundus’s associate, Dr. Foreman, on Wednesday the 14th of March. I weighed in at 326 pounds. The doctor was happy, telling me the surgery would be much easier on them and me. I had lost 40 pounds since January, with a total of 54 since my highest weight in September.
After all these ten months of patiently waiting, things just seem to be moving so fast. Not until my pre-registration at the hospital this past Monday did it occur to me that this is all actually going to happen. My feelings have gone from 90% anxiety and 10% excitement to 90% excitement and 10% anxiety. I have the full support of co-workers, friends, family and my wonderful partner of three years.
I’m physically ready. I’m mentally ready. I’ll see you all on the other side.
