Originally published April 17, 2009

This posting came about from my thoughts in a discussion on the forums over at bariatrictv.com – I’ll write more about the site later… let’s just say it’s a support forum for folks who have had or are looking in to weight loss surgery. It’s a small, but growing group of some very great folks… I highly recommend checking it out if you have been through WLS or are considering it as an option.

It started out with a sort of mini-rant about the term “morbid obesity” by one of the few other guys on the site. He’s typically pretty light-hearted about things, and I believe he was looking to generate a bit of good-natured discussion. I hope he forgives the fact that my response wasn’t quite along those lines. I’ve tweeked the following a bit from what I posted there, mostly just to eliminate a direct reference or such…

I’ve been trying to think of how to reply to this for a lil bit. The more I thought, the more it stirred up in me.

I understand the emotional ties to such a term… we all do… I grew up as the “fat kid”. In a new school in 8th grade my nickname was “porky portinga”.

But “obese” does not describe who I am. It is a medical condition from which I suffer, which happens to have gotten to the point of being diagnosed as “morbid obesity”, because like others have pointed out… every day I was living, suffering under that current condition I was accelerating myself towards death. 10 days ago I was in a position where I had already made significant enough improvements (losing about 60pounds pre-op) that I was already adding to my life expectancy.

My “condition” has dictated a lot of things for me over the years. It has been affecting me in untold ways… physically, mentally, emotionally for nearly as long as I have memories. There were times I thought I could beat this, that I should be able to beat this, through sheer will alone. Other times I ignored it… resigned to the fact that my condition was as much a part of me as my left foot… but the key word there is “condition”.

I believe it’s only recently that I’ve truly come to understand that this is a medical condition, a disease that I suffer from in just the same way that one can suffer from diabetes or arthritis.

9-days ago, I had a procedure done that will help me treat this condition. There are many “treatments” out there for obesity, but I think this is the best for me. Dr. Johnson has given me a new tool for me to use, one that at the very least will change my diagnosis from morbidly obese to simply obese.

I need to lose about 80# from where I am today to get to that line where the medical community draws the distinction between healthy and obese. I may never cross that line, and I’m ok with that, because I know I will be infinitely more healthy at that point than I am today. While I do have a number in mind, I hesitate to call it a goal… because I may not quite reach it and feel that I am good where I am at… that I am “healthy”, as much in mind as body as I need to be…. or… maybe I’ll go past it… maybe I’ll wipe the term “obese” from my medical records for the first time since before I was a teenager.

I currently suffer from morbid obesity, and … this may seem like a stretch to some… but I guess I’m looking at it a bit like a cancer. A cancer I am about to beat the bloody hell in to submission. And I’m going to have to continue to beat it down every day for the rest of my life. A year ago, I was resigned to not even fight it. I don’t know exactly what it was… if there was any one thing that made me change my mind last fall when I started looking in to WLS, but I did. And right now I can look at that morbidly obese diagnosis and say “bring it on.”

I found this article in the Washington Post, Super-size equipment helps D.C. area EMTs move the obese, thanks to a twitter post from Zombar, another post-op dude.

Basically it talks about the increasing need to upgrade and super-size ambulances and other medical equipment to handle the growing trend of a growing girth in the American populace, and as he put it, Thoughts of EMTs dragging me out of the house on a tarp is one of the myriad reasons I chose to have WLS.

This was the night before surgery

My name is Benson. I am 43 years old and on March 2 of this year I had Gastric Bypass Surgery. The techie description is Roux en-Y (RNY). At some point I am sure one of us will get into the technical specs on each surgery but for now I am going to focus on what brought me to that day and how it saved my tail.

I can say that like almost every “morbidly obese” guy I had struggled with weight most of my childhood. I spent 4 years in the Army fighting to stay under the pinch test weight standard, making it through some weeks but most of the time I was on Top’s remedial P.T. list. On the day I was discharged (May 89) I was sure of one thing. I was going to gain a little weight.

Eleven months and 100 lbs later I was 24 and on my way down the tubes. Of course as time went by my health and sheer mass both continued to crash until I arrived at the point of no possible return. I was 5’9” 328 lbs. diabetic, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, severe arthritic with gout and a nasty heart arrhythmia and broken feet.
Yes folks I was so damn heavy that I broke my feet just walking…. More than once. That as they say, is another story.

I had become everything I hated and realized that I was no longer living. I was slowly killing myself. Once you reach that point there is one thing that is always true. You can not just exercise and diet to loose the weight. I lost the same 30 lbs a hundred times at least and every time I would go for a “walk” I would be hammered for at least a week and in need of a medic. The sad thing was that I had spent my entire life as the “tough guy”. All my friends and family were seriously concerned.

This is about 2 1/2 months later

That is when I started looking at WLS as a solution. I went back and forth on it for a long time. The entire thing seemed completely extreme. I went on vacation to visit the mouse and after 7 days of power walking down there I returned so injured that I couldn’t even work.

That process repeated every 18 months as my wife is a complete Disney Freak. Finally I had enough. I had my primary care doc send me in to a seminar and the rest (after a year and a half insurance battle) is history.

I am currently at 240 lbs with no major health issues to speak of. Even the knees are much better now and I have a life again. I continue on my journey day by day. I don’t have all the answers but I am working it out as I go.

I am a Christian guy with a wife, kids, house and blessed for the most part with all the good stuff in life. I am a bit old fashioned. I live in Colorado where I again can enjoy hunting and fishing these majestic mountains and marvel at the glory and wonder in my kids faces when they see a 14,000 foot view of an Elk herd or hear a mountain lion scream in the middle of the night.

Life is worth living. Live it. If WLS lets you do it then God Speed.