Bill Hardwick

Hi, my name is Bill Hardwick and I live in central Ohio.  I wasn't always overweight, but over the years I put on more and more pounds.  I worked in restaurants and cooked for my family.  I did odd jobs, worked on cars and drove a cab for a while.  Although I was heavy, I was always active.  I come from a hard-working family who instilled in me the ideal that you work whatever jobs you have to work to put food on the table and a roof over your head, and that's exactly what I did.In 1999 I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Yes, I said breast cancer.  Male breast cancer does not happen a lot but it does happen and it's rarely talked about.  Mine was most likely caused by not always cleaning my hands throughly after working on cars.  Ingesting those chemicals caused my breast cancer and I had a full mastectomy on the left side and had 16 lymphnodes removed in order to rid my body of the diseased tissue.   While surgery took care of the immediate cancer cells, I was put on Tamoxifen Citrate for 5 year post surgery to reduce the chance of recurrence.  What I didn't know at the time was while this pill may have realistically saved my life, it may also change my quality of life permanently, and not for the good. Over the following years my mobility went downhill.  Some can be contributed to my weight but a lot was due to the changes going on in my legs probably due to the Tamoxifen Citrate.  By the time I would see an orthopedic specialist I was told there was nothing they could do.  The tendons in my ankle joints were basically like rubber and no longer performed their normal function.   Being told there was nothing that could be done was devastating.  My mobility, or lack thereof, was already affecting my life in negative ways.  I was unable to be as active and had begun falling from time to time.  Even taking the dog outside was a chore and there were times I would have to crawl to get around the house.After seeing another orthopedic specialist several years later the possibility that the medication I was on to prevent a breast cancer recurrence could have helped cause this issue was not only speculated about, but was considered the probable cause.  However, this new doctor gave me hope that there was something that could be done.  A procedure called an ankle fusion could possibly help me walk normally again, but the stipulation was that I would have to be under 250lbs in order to have the surgery. 

From there I was fitted for braces to stabilize my ankle joints so that I could walk with a little more ease.  These seemed like a good solution and for a while they were, but they required getting special shoes, basically boots, in order for the braces to fit.  The braces are hard and heavy and the boots are as well and they make my legs even more tired and sore than they were before.  Although I could walk better in them, the degeneration of my joints has continued and I've now had to add using a walker to help me walk and during long trips I have to use a wheelchair.I have tried repeatedly to lose the weight on my own, going to the YMCA regularly at one point to swim as exercise as it was easier on my joints, but as my mobility has lessened so has my ability to exercise.  Realistically, I need help to lose this weight and know I cannot do it on my own.I have tried repeatedly to lose the weight on my own, going to the YMCA regularly at one point to swim as exercise as it was easier on my joints, but as my mobility has lessened so has my ability to exercise.  Realistically, I need help to lose this weight and know I cannot do it on my own.

So now I have signed up to have bariatric surgery.  It is the first step in reclaiming my life and my mobility.  I exist on disability, my wife was forced to retire recently due to a previously undiagnosed birth defect that necessitated a heart valve replacement with a long recovery and can no longer work.  We have very limited income. i have set up a go dund me account to help me raise my copays that need paid before surgery http://www.gofundme.com/BillsJourney