Not So Big Bubba

My name is Bubba. I have been large all of my life with a heaviest weight of 513lbs. I come from a long line of seriously overweight people. I was in the US Army for several years and struggled to stay within weight guidelines. I left the military and played around with bodybuilding and weight training. But that's all it ever was. Playing. I worked as security (Bouncer) at one of the biggest nightclubs in the Baltimore Metropolitan area. I was a beast. Super strong. A fighter to be sure. I was also a Triple Master Tech for Chrysler. On my feet all day every day. Maybe 4 hours of sleep a day. I ran my body into the ground. 7 kids cost a lot of money and I needed to make it happen. I fell asleep on my way to work one morning (apnea) and ran into the back of stopped traffic at 80mph. My body was wrecked. I crushed my right foot. Tib Fib Fracture. And also 10 years later found out I had also broken my hip/femur. 8 years of pain got worse. I once again injured myself pretty bad. Crushed my left foot flat. Blood infection, compartment syndrome and cellulitis put me in the hospital for months. I was huge. No exercise. And friends and family continuously bringing me food while I was in there. I came home from the hospital. And was in deep depression. Divorce came and went for a second time. Visitation for my kids was halted. (Another Story) I just wanted to evaporate. I plodded along. Finally my daughter came to see me in the hospital. She was 18 then. I was laying there with IVs running through me. Legs looked like hamburger. Cellulitis was a common occurrence. She looked at the monitor and started crying and begged me "Daddy please don't die, I didn't fight my mom to lose you like this". I am not gonna lie to you. I started crying like a little girl. And I promised her I wouldn't die any time soon. That I would get my stuff together. I told my Dr. that I was done with this miserable life. She referred me to Dr. Marc Rickford. And the rest is history. I pushed myself to the limit. I couldn't walk a 1/10 of a mile without sitting down. It was so damn hard. I wanted to quit. But I am not a liar. I promised my baby girl something. Starting weight at the beginning of my weight loss surgery program was 445. The day of surgery I was at 355. I am down to 276.6 as of today. I heard of BariatricPal from my Dr and Nutritionist. I have about 40 more to go and then we will explore the skin options.