howlinglanman63
My name is Mike and I live in Woodbury, TN. I’m a computer nerd and work as an enterprise computer systems administrator for a large book distribution company in Nashville. I count myself blessed. I have been happily married for twenty years to a loving and supportive spouse. I am also fortunate to have parents and a sister who are as equal in their love and support. Weight issues are not new to me as I have struggled with them my entire adult life.
My weight problem started while attending college and has progressively gotten worse with age. As recently as 2003, I was able to run 5-10k races, but now I’m lucky if I can walk to my car in the parking lot at work without getting short of breath. I lose weight, maintain for a short period of time, and then gain it all back and more. Many of you know the story.
2007 was an especially challenging year. In July I changed jobs. Every new job has associated stresses, and this one was no different, however, just as I was beginning to settle in I was diagnosed in early December 2007 with Guillane-Barre Syndrome. Early treatment and physical therapy made it possible to regain all of my mobility, but the emotional issues from the disease took much longer to heal. In the last ten years co morbidities of obstructive sleep apnea, hypertension, arthritis,hypercholesterolemia and Type II diabetes have all been added to my medical chart. In early January 2011 began to realize what morbid obesity was doing to my life. I concluded that if I continued down this path, I would not live long enough to see retirement. The thought of leaving my wife a widow, my parents without a son, and my sister without a brother was sobering .
My goal now it to get healthy! I decided that the roux-y gastric bypass would be the best choice to assist me in reaching that goal. After researching and attending seminars at three different Bariatric Centers of Excellence, I chose Dr. Douglas Olsen at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville to do the surgery. Dr. Olsen comes across as a straight up, no nonsense surgeon who wants to see his patients succeed in their weight loss. I realize that weight loss surgery is only a tool and to be truly successful will require major lifestyle changes on my part. One short term goal I have is to lose 10% of my body weight before surgery. I am currently eight weeks out before surgery (7-11-11) and have 6.2 lbs to go.
Well, hopefully you know a little bit more about me. I look forward to meeting and sharing with more of you in the days ahead.
