Chapter 52: HUGE NEWS!!!!

Well, I know it's been FOREVER since I've blogged on here and I've probably lost most of my readers lol, but I have big news and I wanted to update everyone.

Sadly, I realized that I couldn't lose a substantial amount of weight on my own so I turned to alternative methods....crack. Ha, just kiddin! On November 1st around 7am, I went into Baptist Hospital in Nashville TN and had the Gastric Lapband put on my stomach. For those of you that aren't familiar with this procedure it is a very non-invasive weight-loss surgery. My mother, uncle, and two coworkers have had the Gastric Bypass done, and my dad and sister had the Lapband put on about a year ago. I decided that this needed to be done for my health. It was getting out of control. My acid reflux had gotten terrible, my knees/back/ankles were killing me, and I was beginning to get sugar and blood pressure problems. It took a lot of thought and prayer, but I finally decided in March of this past year to begin the process.

I know I have said before that I didn't want to resort to weight-loss surgery because I feel like it's cheating, and I wanted to feel accomplished when I lost the weight on my own, but I feel like I had tried every other option that I could possibly do. Come on, I even auditioned for The Biggest Loser for crying out loud lol. So needless-to-say I will begin to lose weight and by this time next year I should be about 130lbs lighter :)

The surgery went well, as is my recovery, but I'm still very sore and in a small amount of pain (compared to the pain I WAS in). I'm healing up quickly and I'm already eating solid foods. My food intake is very restricted, but that's the main purpose of the band. It creates an hour-glass effect on your stomach so that food "trickles" down much slower than normally making you feel full faster and for longer periods of time.

For those of you that are reading this I thank you. I would like to keep you updated so please check out my other blog, and if I remember this blog, I will try to post here from time to time. Thanks for all your support along this journey and I look forward to sharing my new life with you all. God bless!

-Chase