Florida David

I have just begun my Lap-Band journey.  After much study and encouragement from my three doctors, I finally signed up for the Lap-Band procedure.  I'm a 54 year old guy who now weighs 370.  My all time high was 419 three years ago.  I went on a healthy eating and exercise program with a personal trainer and lost 109 pounds.  Any time I slacked off on the exercise, the weight would start to come back on.  I had to workout at the gym at least 5 times a week to be able to maintain my weight or to lose another pound or two.
The bad news came last summer.  I was breaking bones in both feet on a regular basis, that was keeping me out of the gym.  Of course the weight started coming back at an alarming weight.  At first I thought the bones were breaking because of the large amount of exercise I was doing with my trainer.  Than last fall, I was diagnosed with Charcot Foot disease in both feet.  The bones in my feet has softened and were now twisted and deformed.  My foot specialist told me that at 53, my feet were worn out.  He put me in removable casts on both feet.  I had been in a lot of pain in my feet from the broken bones, but the casts seemed to make them hurt even more.  I refused to go on any opiate based pain killer that I could and probably would become addicted to.  It finally came down to the doctor telling me to stay off my feet.  Period.  This meant that I have gone into a wheel chair full time.  I now only stand on my feet to transfer in and out of my chair.  It has been a difficult time of transition!  Along with my feet, I also suffer from the following comorbidities:  sleep apnea, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and triglycerides and depression.  How in the world am I going to loose the weight I desperately need to loose to stay alive and have any quality of life at all?
This brings me to the reason that I have chosen to go on the Lap-Band journey.  I'm laying it all on the line here.  I want to succeed!  I need to succeed!  I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of you here in this support group.  I'm sure that you all have tips and ideas that will allow me to be as successful as many of you have already been.  I want to thank you all in advance for all your support and encouragement, in what ever form that may take.  I know the struggle and pain of living a life being obese.  I'm a very loving and compassionate person who hopes that I may be able to reach out and help others too, as I travel the road of my Lap-Band journey.