Tuesday, March 23, 2010

One Year Later

It is late.
We've had a hell of a week, month, year...
We're tired and stressed out and sad and scared and ...
But ... this is a date that ought to be noted before it passes.
One year ago today, Master and T embarked, with great bravery on a path that would forever change their lives -- we hoped for the better.  It has not been an easy path.  There has been pain and suffering and a very great deal of adjusting as both of them have worked to learn to live with their very significantly altered digestive systems.  With all of that, between them they've lost some 222 pounds.  That's notable, and I want it noted here in this place -- before we all move on. 

I am awfully proud of the two of them.  I am thrilled for the new and healthier lives that they have ahead of them because of this choice.  Some few, sour souls have insinuated that there was a lack of discipline that set all of this in motion -- made it necessary.  That's just pure, ignorant nonsense.  There are real medical reasons why some people cannot successfully control their weight, and there are weight driven morbidity issues that make finding a way to conquer the issue a critical life decision.  Choosing the path of bariatric surgery is not a simple decision, and anyone who believes it somehow provides an easy fix is just an uninformed fool.  The surgery gave my Master and my T the tools they needed to get control of their weight issues.  It was not any sort of magic.  They have done the work, made the changes, and won the battle.  Today, in the midst of everything else happening in our lives, I want to shout from the housetops that this is a "birthday" of sorts and deserves its own celebration.

swan

5 comments:

morningstar said...

It is indeed a milestone that should be marked and cheered....

YAYYYYYYYY t and Tom.. YAYYYYYYYY

morningstar

sin said...

Congratulations to all of you, them for living it, and you for supporting and writing about it.

I loved reading your story over the course of the year. I found it extremely compelling. Thank you for sharing it with me.

In December I went to a party and found myself at a table at dinner with 3 people who had had bariatric surgery. I felt like I knew them better because of reading your blog.

I think the idea that somehow it was weak to have the surgery is ridiculous and pretty smug.

thanks for sharing,
sin

Unknown said...

And every step of this long way at our sides was our swan. She slept at my side in a recliner chair every night for each of the 23 days I was in the hospital in the last year after my gastric bypass and the subsequent bowel obstruction 8 months later. She advocated for us both with Dr.'s and nurses. She rubbed my back while I puked when we couldn't find dietary options that worked for my new gastro-intestinal system. She held my hand when surgeons at bedside in my hospital room, without anesthesia, sliced into my belly long incisions to drain my abdominal infection after the gastric bypass surgery. She helped service the wound vac when, in the month after my first hospitalization, my post operative infection required me to be hooked to that machine 24/7 to heal those incisions. She rushed me to the ER Sunday night November 22 stopping along the side of the road four times for me to throw up, not knowing I had a bowel obstruction and that had she not taken me in I could have had an intestinal rupture leading to peritonitis and potentially, death. Yeah, there were times after the first surgery she wiped my butt. She lifted and hauled all manner of stuff in our life when both t and I were on weight lifting restriction. She accompanied me to numerous follow-up medical appointments. She has walked with me through endless daily 5 mile power walks even in the Cincinnati summer heat and humidity.

If I look back at all of this year and what t and I were able to achieve, the way it happened was that we two, and espeically I, was carried through the year on the shoulders of a swan who has loved us through each and evey mile with caring, skill, and just plain hard work.

Thank you doesn't come close to expressing the gratitude we have for all you've done for us.

I love you my beautiful slave.

Mine Always and All Ways,

Tom

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you;ve imagined.

T said...

Yeah.....what Tom said..

Ditto for me. We could NOT have done this without My Sue!

T

Sir said...

Well done

Warren