A doctor poked six holes in my belly, changed my guts around, and set me up to lose a life-changing amount of weight, avoid a slew of nasty medical problems, and, though it sounds obnoxiously cliché, saved my life.
A few weeks before I went under the knife, a co-worker at ABC2 asked if I'd like to blog about the process for our web department. He'd watched someone close to him go through the pre-surgery process, the procedure, and then months of dramatic weight loss, and thought it would make for interesting reading. I declined. I didn't want to draw attention to myself, just in case I didn't lose weight after weight loss surgery.
Five months out I can say with confidence: it worked! I've lost about 70 pounds. That's the same amount of weight as about eight milk jugs, and a few shampoo bottles. It's also about the weight of an average 9-year-old boy. I'm ready now to share why I did this dramatic thing, what it's like to prepare for it, go through it, and come out the other side a healthier and happier person.
I'm going to end this first post by laying down two ground rules:
1) Haters are not welcome. If you think weight loss surgery is the easy way out, move on to another blog (there are some really cool ones on our site. Check out Taste Buds).
2) I'm a TV news producer, not a doctor, so don't take any of what I say as medical advice.
For now, I'll leave you with my latest before and after picture, so you can see that it really does work!
