Paul's Life Changing Weight Loss Surgery

Hi Everyone,  First, I want to thank you just for reading my page and considering giving to this life changing goal. For my entire life I have been big. My weight has been a challenge for me since before I can remember. Some of my first memories are talking about dieting and exercise. When I was 5 years old,  I weighed in at over 150 lbs. When I was 12 years old, I hit 300. I was too heavy to play most sports, ride a regular bicycle,  fit in a normal sized theatre seat, etc. Already my weight was causing life to become difficult. My mother asked the high school football team if i could exercise with them during summer trainings and lifts to try to get my weight under control.  They let me, but my weight continued to increase. In high school I topped the charts at 420 lbs. That's more than Big Black from Rob & Big. Breaking my leg during my junior year meant I lost the ability to exercise for the most part and put me up to this weight before my senior year. I stopped weighing myself for shame of what my weight had grown to.  At doctors appointments,  I would just refuse to step on the scale,  and tell the nurse or medical assistant the ballpark I was in, and they'd write it down.  In July 2018, I became very sick in the early evening one day. My wife took me to the ER, and the doctor said they needed a CAT scan to figure out what was wrong with me, but their table for the machine only held 500 lbs. I hadn't been weighed in years so I told them I didn't know if I was under that. They weighed me and my worst fear became real. I weighed in at 513 lbs. More than a quarter ton. I was suddenly sick to my stomach for a whole other reason. The doctor told me that without the proper imaging, they couldn't be sure what was wrong with me,  and I would have to transfer to another hospital. It was a 9 hour wait,  and then an hour ride to the next hospital with a table I could fit on. Luckily the CAT scan showed nothing serious, but the doctor said if this had been serious it could have been life threatening not to have the proper imaging. He suggested I think about weight loss surgery.  Truthfully, I'd been considering surgery for a few years but never decided to do it... UNTIL NOW.   This isn't a decision to have surgery that is a magical fix for obesity, or a one shot done deal that will make me thinner. This is a decision to never eat the same way again, to learn and develop an active and healthy lifestyle, to put in the work necessary to reach my health goal.  My goal for this gofundme is to raise the needed funds to help cover the cost of the surgery, the needed preparation tasks (a sleep study,  a psychological evaluation, six months of consultations with a dietitian, and labs, on top of appointments with the surgeon every month until the surgery), and the hospital fitness center fees for the year after the surgery. Thank you again for reading and please consider donating to this GoFundMe. Every cent is greatly appreciated and absolutely will be put to good use!  -Paul