Reply to Nathan's fears
Nathan,
I have children your age so I thought hard and long before I wrote this to you. I wanted to reply to your post about pre-surgery fears, but I wanted my answer to reflect what I would say to my own son or daughter. If you did not have fears and concerns I would think that you really have not done enough research into having weight loss surgery. Fears and concerns are normal. No surgery should be taken lightly.
My experience, after 14 months, is that it was the best thing I ever did for myself and my family. I can do so many things today that I couldn't only dream of before. I look back and see all the things I didn't do in my life because of my weight and I know I am blessed with a second chance to do some of them now. I missed out on doing so much with my kids as well. I could not ride the rides at Disney World with them when they were little. I could not shoot hoops in the drive, or play catch in the yard with my son as he was growing up. I missed out on so many recitals and other activities with my daughter because either I couldn't walk far enough to attend or I couldn't fit in the auditorium seats. I couldn't even go on vacations with my family because I could not fit in a plane seat or keep up walking on a tour.
I can't relive my youth. Once your youth is gone it's gone! I also would not be able to get to my old age or "golden years" at the weight I was at. At 460 plus I was a barely walking dead man. I knew I had very few years left. My knees were shot. I had sleep apnea. I had high blood pressure. Along the way I managed to rupture three disks in my back to boot. The circulation in my legs and feet were so bad that my legs swelled and ached and my feet turned blue to purple at times. The back of my lower calves turned to a hardened black mass of dead tissue, and I knew I was not far from the day that gangrene would set in and my legs would have to be amputated. I was already in the early stages of diabetes. Heart disease and failure wasn't far behind.
I often wondered; "How did I get this bad?" The answer to that was easy to realize. I got that way by doing nothing to fix my problem! You have already recognized the most important thing, you know that you must do something. I can not tell you to follow me and have the surgery just because I did. All I can tell you is to consider this; "Where will you be if you don't do this five, ten, twenty years from now or later? What will you have missed out on? How long will your life be or how much will it be shortened if you do nothing?"
We should fear the most the fears we avoid recognizing. Too often we do not fear doing nothing until it's way too late. So the main thing you should be asking yourself is; "Why do I fear taking control of my problem more than I fear doing nothing about something that will, more than likely, eventually kill me!"
Nick
Albert Einstein once said that "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is a form of insanity"
I have children your age so I thought hard and long before I wrote this to you. I wanted to reply to your post about pre-surgery fears, but I wanted my answer to reflect what I would say to my own son or daughter. If you did not have fears and concerns I would think that you really have not done enough research into having weight loss surgery. Fears and concerns are normal. No surgery should be taken lightly.
My experience, after 14 months, is that it was the best thing I ever did for myself and my family. I can do so many things today that I couldn't only dream of before. I look back and see all the things I didn't do in my life because of my weight and I know I am blessed with a second chance to do some of them now. I missed out on doing so much with my kids as well. I could not ride the rides at Disney World with them when they were little. I could not shoot hoops in the drive, or play catch in the yard with my son as he was growing up. I missed out on so many recitals and other activities with my daughter because either I couldn't walk far enough to attend or I couldn't fit in the auditorium seats. I couldn't even go on vacations with my family because I could not fit in a plane seat or keep up walking on a tour.
I can't relive my youth. Once your youth is gone it's gone! I also would not be able to get to my old age or "golden years" at the weight I was at. At 460 plus I was a barely walking dead man. I knew I had very few years left. My knees were shot. I had sleep apnea. I had high blood pressure. Along the way I managed to rupture three disks in my back to boot. The circulation in my legs and feet were so bad that my legs swelled and ached and my feet turned blue to purple at times. The back of my lower calves turned to a hardened black mass of dead tissue, and I knew I was not far from the day that gangrene would set in and my legs would have to be amputated. I was already in the early stages of diabetes. Heart disease and failure wasn't far behind.
I often wondered; "How did I get this bad?" The answer to that was easy to realize. I got that way by doing nothing to fix my problem! You have already recognized the most important thing, you know that you must do something. I can not tell you to follow me and have the surgery just because I did. All I can tell you is to consider this; "Where will you be if you don't do this five, ten, twenty years from now or later? What will you have missed out on? How long will your life be or how much will it be shortened if you do nothing?"
We should fear the most the fears we avoid recognizing. Too often we do not fear doing nothing until it's way too late. So the main thing you should be asking yourself is; "Why do I fear taking control of my problem more than I fear doing nothing about something that will, more than likely, eventually kill me!"
Nick
Albert Einstein once said that "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is a form of insanity"
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