The turning point

My workouts with Jennifer are going well. I'm really starting to feel the burn, now; she is REALLY excited about that. LOL! She seems to get enjoyment out of seeing me sweat, which is funny to me. She knows what is best and lord knows - sweat and sore muscles are what we're after. So it's all good.

I had coffee the other night with one of you - my readers. I hate to reduce the relationship to that word - "reader". I prefer "friend". She lives very close to me, coincidentally, and we decided to get together. It was a wonderful experience and we talked and talked for 2-1/2 hours before we realized how late it was getting. She is a Bo Bice fan as well so we got along famously! Still very new in the process of gastric bypass, she had lots of questions for me and one in particular struck me as I realized I hadn't really blogged about it before.

What was the final thing to push me over the edge and decide to have this surgery?

I thought for a moment before answering. Really, I'm not sure there was a single one thing. I got sick and tired of being sick and tired. There was prodding, though.

Last summer, a family friend had the procedure done about 30 mins. away, by a local doctor. Intrigued, I decided to call his office for an appointment even though the friend had said she was sure there was a lengthy waiting list. She herself had to wait about a year. So I called, and the receptionist told me that not only was the dr. not accepting new patients, he had halted his waiting list for at least a year. She told me, "Next summer we will review whether or not we will start the waiting list up again." Oh. Ok. So I had to wait another year to MAYBE get on the waiting list. This was one of the only doctors in Ontario to do the procedure; the rest had waiting lists of two to three years.

I was really devastated by this news. It depressed me for a couple of days. My ray of hope was snuffed out like a candle.

Ironically enough, the woman I had coffee with the other night is now a patient of this dr. Ontario has released more money to doctors who perform the surgery and I suppose now he's hired more help or something because he is accepting patients readily. Great news for her!

I put the gastric bypass on the back burner. But several occurrences last summer made me realize I had to do something and do it quickly.

In June, Erich and I traveled to Rochester, NY to see Lynyrd Skynyrd with friends. There was a hellacious hill we had to climb to get to the seating area. It damn near killed me to go up that hill. I almost didn't make it. I was embarrassed and so angry.

In July, I flew to Maryland for two Bo shows with three close girlfriends. Walking was getting to be such a hassle. I couldn't stand in the lines for the general admission shows; I could barely stand long enough for the concerts; after the second show, I was badly dehydrated, my knees buckling and back breaking, and my heart was racing. I plopped down near the edge of the dance floor and guzzled two bottles of water. I remember thinking "This is ridiculous."

In August, Erich and I traveled to Cleveland, again for a Bo show. The ONLY reason I went to this show was because I knew there were assigned seats. I had made up my mind that my general-admission-show days were over. I just couldn't do it anymore. My knees had been bothering me really badly since my trip to Maryland and for the Cleveland show, I had no choice but to take my cane - just to get from the parking lot to my seat. I ended up standing for his encore and for those few minutes, I thought I was going to collapse. It was awful. I remember coming home and looking at pictures of myself at that show and crying. What the hell was happening to me??

Erich & me in Cleveland (click to enlarge):


I was depressed for a while. It took me another couple months to get my shit together. I had heard about Henry Ford Hospital's bariatric program several years before and sort of tucked that information away in my mind. Now I pulled it back out. I talked to my family dr. about it. I got the necessary paperwork filled out and sent it in. I was approved for the out-of-country procedure and the rest is history.

Sometimes us Bo Peeps talk about how much Bo, and being a part of such a close fandom, has brought to our lives. Well.....I kinda think Bo Bice saved my life. If not for him, and all the wonderful friends I've made through him, I most likely would've been sitting on my couch and not traipsing all over North America trying with all my might to be active and to just LIVE. I doubt I would've noticed, or cared as much, that I couldn't stand up for hours at a time. My weight was preventing me from doing something I love more than anything - something that requires me to get out there and enjoy life. I wasn't enjoying my life anymore. Being a Bo fan helped me to see that. It wasn't the only thing, but those trips last summer really put an exclamation point on it for me. I was slowly dying and if I wanted to continue traveling, laughing, dancing, singing - kissing my husband goodnight and loving my full, precious life - I had to make some changes.

So thank you, Bo. And thank you to all my fellow Bo Peeps. I owe you!