Long Overdue Update

    I have to start out by apologizing for the length of time between updates on my blog but it has been a whirlwind of activity these last few months and I have been on the go constantly. I know, it is no excuse really. How long could it take to sit down and write an entry into a blog but it just seems like I would think I should write an entry and then I would get off onto something else and forget all about it. But enough about that, I am writing now and am very excited to update everyone on what has been going on with me. My life and my body have changed so much since my surgery it is almost too good to be true. If it was somebody else telling me about the changes in their life, I would have a bit of trouble believing that there wasn’t a bit of exaggeration in there. First of all, my diabetes is gone. My blood sugar readings are normal, I don’t suffer with constant thirst and the result of that of having to go to the restroom constantly. I sleep all night mainly because of the not having to get up and go to the restroom and because my sleep apnea is gone. My blood pressure is lower now than it was it high school. My joints are feeling better and better each and every day. The pain in my knees has gone from a level of 7-8 in both knees to a zero in my left knee and 1-2 in my right knee. I can walk 2 -3 miles with no problem, I can ride my bicycle 20 or more miles, and I even backpacked up a small mountainous area in Brazil with about a 30 pound pack and climbed a lot of rock steps to get up to see a waterfall that I would not have been able to do 4 months ago.

     And now for the biggest news of all, I have lost over 90 pounds since the middle of May. My body has reduced in size so much and face has changed so much I barely recognize myself when I look in a mirror. I was wearing a tight fitting 44 waist pants that were down below my belly and now I wear a loose fitting 34 waist at the belly button line where they are supposed to fit. I have some loose skin that I need to tighten up but I think with a little time and exercise that will correct itself also. I cannot believe how much my overall body size has reduced. I am wearing a large shirt size down from a XXL and they are loose fitting on me. The only thing really keeping me from dropping to a medium is the length. I am just too tall for a medium shirt. I have not worn clothing like this since I was in high school or shortly after. I have run into several of my friends and associates that have not seen me in a while and they did not recognize me at all. I had to tell them who I was. You really cannot believe what that does for ones self-esteem and ego. I feel better now than I did when I was 35 years old and I am 55 now. I could not be happier with the results. Would I do it all over again? In a heartbeat. This has been the best thing I have ever done for my health and overall well being. I cannot believe how much it has changed me and the way I about myself.

   I am currently on an airplane. Now that I don’t have to carry insulin, needles, test equipment, and worry about keeping it refrigerated, travel is so much easier. I can fly without a lot of anxiety. I can sit comfortably in the miserable coach sections of airplanes, even the small regional jets like the one I am on now. I can sit my laptop on the tray table and actually open it and use it without it being jammed into my belly. It sure does make my job easier to be able to travel and not be miserable the entire trip from being so uncomfortable during the flights and at the airports. Still, going to TSA is a pain but not nearly as much as having to put up with all the BS of having to get my insulin, needles, and supplies through security. I don’t lay around my hotel all evening watching TV and eating everything I can get into my mouth. I like to go for walks. If the hotel has a pool I really enjoy swimming laps and refreshing myself in the pool and or sauna.

    While I still have about 20 – 25 pounds to go, I am so excited about where I am now and yet I am still excited about reaching my goal of getting on the scale and seeing that first number be a ONE. It will be a large difference from the many years of the that number being a 2 and at times a 3. My hope is to be able to get to my listed goal weight of 195. If I can reach that and maintain it for awhile I won’t mind if I go back up to around 210 or so. I think I will let my system pick its comfortable weight and then work my butt off to stay there. I don’t want to ever get back to the weight I was or the shape I was in. My goal for the long term is get this weight off and keep it off the rest of my life. I am so much happier now and I just feel good.

   Are there any regrets for what I have done? Not a one. I don’t miss the foods I can no longer eat. I don’t regret for one minute the loss of the diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, sore knees, lethargic lifestyle, being fat and miserable. My life is improving with each passing day. I have more energy, I look better in my clothes, and I feel human. This surgery saved my life and I am determined to do all I can to help others learn about and to make the decision to make this same move. It is tough starting out, but the rewards are so much more than the difficulties. The difficulties are short lived and the benefits are lifelong. If you are out there considering this course of action, please, contact me and let’s talk. My assistance and advice are there for the asking. I would love to help you get started and get through the process and reap the rewards that a healthy and happy lifestyle can bring you. And to those that supported me through this part of my life, my love and gratitude to each and every one of you cannot be expressed in words on this page. I cannot express how much I appreciate each and every comment and word of encouragement. It has meant the world to me to know I have such good friends and those that love me.

Going to Brazil

This is a delayed posting on my blog today as I am currently sitting on a plane bound for Sao Paulo Brazil. I am going to be down here for the next 3 weeks on business. I sure do hope this trip turns out better than it started. I made it to Atlanta only to find out that my travel companion Wes did not. His flight out of Richmond was cancelled due to mechanical and he will not make it down until tomorrow morning. So I get to find a hotel and crash for one day in Sao Paulo. I might rest up a bit and see if I can get on a tour. I have a whole day to kill until he gets here tomorrow. I tried to get my flight changed and stay in Atlanta for the night and then travel down with Wes tomorrow but Delta wanted $554.00 to change my flight. I remember a day when something like that happened the airlines would accommodate a change like that with no problem. But now being the money grubbing companies that the airlines have become, they no longer believe in customer service. It is a sad state of affairs that has overtaken the airline industries. Probably why most people have no pity at all over their plight. If they all went belly up it would not break my heart in the least.

To make matters worse, I had a serious episode with the food on the plane during the flight. I have never been sick on an airplane in all the 34 years I have been a road warrior. It was not a pleasant experience. I spent about an hour in the head barfing up supper and thought for a while I was going to spend the entire flight in there. I really have to be careful with what I eat and the speed in which I eat it. I am not sure what triggered it, but I thought I was being fairly careful. Anyway, later in the flight I drank a hot tea and then had a Carnation instant breakfast that went down well and I ate a banana and had a little orange juice for breakfast and seemed to handle it quite well. So hopefully I can get off this plane, find a Sims chip for my phone and get myself to a decent hotel without a lot of trouble. I guess a bit of an adventure lays ahead for me. I will post this blog and let you all know the results later today. End of delayed post....
  The story continues, I did make it to a hotel finally but not with my luggage. Delta managed to leave my bag in Atlanta so I am hoping it will come with Wes. Which by the way, it did. I was able to walk to a large store near my hotel and get a Sims chip for my cellphone and got it working. I can't believe how hard that was. But now it is a couple of days later and I met up with Wes, I got my bag and we drove up to the city, which is Araxa Brazil about 6 hours north of Sao Paulo. It was a beautiful drive and we had a good time on the trip. Things finally seemed to be getting better on this trip. I was wrong.
  We get to the hotel and the my room is about the size of a matchbox with two little bitty beds about half to three-quarter size of a twin bed. I did manage to sleep on the thing but it is really small. I would be more comfortable in a hammock. The food here is good and I am finding things to eat without too much trouble. No low fat anything but I did manage to find a few sugar free items and am diluting the milk with ice so I hope I don't have trouble with it. I think I can manage with the hotel.
Then we get to the customer's plant this morning and it is going to be a disaster but I won't bore you with all the details of what is wrong here. Let me just say, it is going to be a very boring week. It is pretty darned cold here too. As I sit here in the open air lobby of the hotel it is about 45 or so degrees. I am wearing a long sleeve shirt and have goosebumps. All and all, a pretty interesting/disastrous trip so far but I am surviving. More later as things develop. Stay tuned. George

Phase III of Diet And Still Doing Great

  I am getting ready to head home for a few days and go for my next doctors visit. I am feeling really good. Still losing weight and exercising daily. I really love the swimming and hope to be able to keep it up in Brazil. Oh yes, did I mention, Saturday, I leave for 3 weeks in Brazil. I have 2 different jobs to go on down there and will hopefully have a pool at the hotels I will be staying at. If not, I guess walking will once again become my major regimen. Sunday I did manage a 10 mile bike ride followed by an hour of swimming laps and stretching in the pool and hottub. It is so nice to be getting healthy again. It has been too long. I really enjoyed the bike ride and hope to get another one in before I have to leave.
    My blood sugar levels have been marvelous and I can tell improvements in it all the time. Last several measurements have been in the 110 to 130 range and I feel great. No more insulin and the neuropathy is almost all gone in my feet, my toenails are returning normal and my legs look better than they have in almost 15 years. My blood pressure has been normal the last 3 times I checked it and I am sleeping soundly all night long. I wake up feeling totally rested. I never realized how badly I was sleeping before. So far I have lost around 55 lbs. My clothes no longer fit and I have started buying some smaller sized items to wear. I am back in XL shirts and L underwear. It is such a nice feeling to see what is going on with my body.
   I am anxious to see how I do flying on a long international trip this weekend. I have been so miserable the last few years even on short flights, now with the weight loss I am hoping the airline seats will be tolerable. I know they won't be comfortable but bearable would be great in my book. I have a long drive home starting this afternoon and am all packed and ready to go. I can't wait for the folks back home to see what I look like now. I have changed a lot in the 2.5 weeks I have been gone. Good eating habits and exercise really make a great difference and the fact that I don't have to take any medications is a real blessing. I am feeling great and feeling happy. Thanks to all who have supported my throughout this process and I hope I can help you in return. Have a great day everyone. George

Almost 26 Days

  Well I am back in Richmond, VA and going to  spending a few more days here, then off to Oklahoma City for a quickie job and then down to Brazil in South America for a month of work. It was a interesting day yesterday. I had done really well the last 4 weeks of avoiding the dreaded "dumping syndrome" they kept warning us about and ended up having it twice yesterday. Once because of my own stupidity and once because of unknown reasons on a product I had not tried since my surgery. I stopped on my way back from Delaware, where I worked over the weekend, to have a small bite of breakfast at a Waffle House. I thought that I could easily eat one soft scrambled egg and a small amount of grits. Well, having several things on my mind and a knee that was just killing me, I popped a couple of acetaminophen and swallowed them with a small sip of decaf coffee and a few minutes later began to eat my breakfast. Within just a couple of bites I was nauseous and cramping as I realized to my horror the mistake I had made of taking both of those large caplets at once. They hung up and now the food was hung up and I thought for a few minutes I was going to die. I had taken pills before that, but only one at a time and had waited several minutes before taking the second one. At first, I thought it was the grits that were causing the symptoms as I had not eaten any of them since my surgery. I went in to the bathroom thinking I would have to get them and the food back up, but as soon as I felt the strongest urge to do that, the plug broke loose and everything stayed down. I went back out and tentatively ate a few bites that went down just fine and caused no further problems and the grits were fine also. What a relief. It kind of freaked me out on a large scale.
   The second time it happened was later in the afternoon after eating lunch, I went in and sat down with a cup of sugar free jello. I ate just a couple of bites of this and it hit me like I was being run over. Back to the bathroom again and this time I was sure it was coming back up, but after several minutes of feeling like I was going to explode, I felt better and then it was gone. The only thing I think of about the Jello is that it was the type of sugar free Jello that you don't have to refrigerate. It must of had a different sweetener or carbs in it that my system did not like at all. I had eaten the regular kind on several occasions and never had a problem. I might try it again in the future but I am going to avoid it for now until I figure out what caused the second round of the syndrome. I only ate about 3 or 4 bites of the little tub of Jello but it sure did react in a negative way. So, I had learned two valuable lessons yesterday, first, no pills before a meal and definetly not two at once and second, anything I eat for the first time post op is going to have to be eaten in very small bites and very slowly for the first few bites. I really don't like that experience and would rather avoid it in the future.
   Other than that, I am doing fine. I am getting close to losing my age in weight. I should be around 55lbs lost if not already. Last time I weighed I was at 51 and that was last Saturday. My days have been busy and I noticed it is about time to get headed to work. I do feel great and my blood sugar last night before bed was 109. I have not checked it yet this morning, but I can tell it is still very good. I always know when it gets too high and in the last several weeks it has been great. I hope it stays that way. Talk to you all soon and hope you all have a really great day. George

Still Doing Great!

   Just a short post this morning. I weighed yesterday and lost another 7lbs. for a total of 51lbs. so far. I feel great. I am in Millsboro, DE this morning and had a really beautiful drive up here from Richmond, VA. I crossed the Chesapeake Bay bridge and tunnel and what an experience that was. I also stopped at a really cool state park that a guy told me about and took pictures of some really cool old concrete battleships that they sunk just off shore to make a break water in the bay. I will try and post a few shots later on my facebook page.
  That is all for right now, just wanted to give a brief update on how I feel and what is going on. It has been a very hectic last several days but I am doing great and getting better every day. Best wishes to all for a great remainder of the weekend. Talk more later. George

Staying Active

   The first two days of work went quite well and I feel great. I am really enjoying the workouts in the pool here at the hotel where I am staying. This morning I used their exercise facility and it is okay. It is better than walking outside right now. I went for a short cool down walk and it was anything but a cool down. It is very humid here this morning. I am in Colonial Heights, VA right outside Richmond. I thought I was going to be here a couple of weeks but now it looks like I will be here for about 5 or 6 weeks. This is good. The good solid income will come in very handy right now. I hope to get Melody to come out for a few days while I am here. It would be fun having her along.
   I actually got a pretty good workout this morning and I am sitting here sweating something fierce. I hope I can keep this up. It feels good to be treating my body properly for a change. It has been badly abused the last several years and I feel bad that I let myself go so badly. Of course, flying off a motorcycle at 55mph will have a tendency to cause several bad side effects. It was 3 years ago last Saturday that we had our wreck. I am still trying to recover from that wreck. More emotionally and mentally now than physically but there are still some things that are a result of that wreck. Like my right knee which just doesn't seem to want to get better. My left knee is doing pretty good but that right one is still being a nagging pain almost all of the time. I do think the pain is lessening at times and then it will flair up and sometimes I think it feels worse than ever. I am hesitant to get another cortisone shot as the last ones drove my blood sugar levels off the chart and I felt like a lethargic bag of crap for about a week afterwards. I will just keep trying to rehabilitate it and keep using the Ben Gay ointment. It does seem to help.
   The most remarkable thing for me though is how I feel. I feel great and seem to feel just a little better each day. It is truly wonderful what this surgery has done for me so far. I don't know how much weight I have lost right now. I don't have a scale with me but I can tell I have lost quite a bit more. My ring I wear on my right hand almost won't stay on. I have to be careful it doesn't just fall off. I started wearing my wedding band again a couple of weeks ago as I had not been able to even get it on for the last several years. At first it was very tight but wearable. Now it is even starting to get loose. I can slip it on easier each day it seems. I may have to get them resized before long. Little things that are going with my body make me very happy. For example, I can walk now without the inner parts of my thighs trying to rub themselves off each other. If I stand with my feet at normal width apart, my thighs just barely touch each other. It has been a very long time since that has occurred. I do need to start working the upper part of my body a bit more. Getting a bit flabby in places from the weight loss and I need to tighten as I lose. The swimming will help with that I think and I need to start using my bands more. They work the top part of my body more. I will do that when I get back from work this evening.
   Well, time to get ready for work. Time sure does go by quick when I am writing in my blog. I will be back in a couple of days. Have a great day everybody. Talk to you all soon, George.

On The Road Again

   It has come to that time again. I am getting ready to head back out on the road today. It has been two weeks since my surgery and I have decided that I don't need the extra week at home and I am in big demand right now so I better take advantage of it. I am taking my bicycle, my vitamins, and heading out to the east coast for a couple of weeks of work in Virginia, Delaware, and who knows where else. My next Dr's appointment is July 5th so I have to be home for that. It has been a fabulous two weeks at home. Melody and I have really enjoyed our walks everyday and I am really hoping she will continue. She needs a walking partner. I think this really helps if you have someone to walk with each day. She can really tell a difference on how she is trimming down and feeling better with the exercise. I am glad I was able to get the ball rolling, perhaps she will be able to maintain the momentum.
   I am going to keep my post short today as I need to finish packing and get ready to head out to Virginia. I need to be there first thing Monday morning to work. Again, I must express my gratitude to my wife and family, my many friends, and my large family of online friends and associates that have encouraged me and helped motivate me through this experience. Press on to those that are contemplating doing what I have done and if you need any advice or help, I am here for you. Have a great weekend. George