Where would I be today if................

A month now after my 20th WLS anniversary I have done a lot of reflecting. Here, I will be 68 years old next month with grown grandkids and some new little great grandkids. Life is good in spite of the medical problems I have some of them wls related and some not. Would do it again in a NY minute. I look at my life and think that anything after this age is gravy or icing on the cake. With my preop weight, the diabetes and hypertension I had and a number of other small things that would have mushroomed into bigger things and I thank G-D every day for the miracle of WLS. I have seen things in my lifetime and participated in a number of them because of my occupation prior to retirement that were only science fiction when I was a youngster. I remember when the minimum wage was 75 cents and at that age I thought wow what a lot of money. Days of a coke for a nickle, you could go shopping and for 20 bucks feed a family of 5 probably for a week or more. Health insurance was not a problem back then but I look at diseases we had then that there were no cures for nor anything the doctors could do to even make things better. My father died of a major heart attack made worse by out of control diabetes. Nobody ever heard of heart bypass surgery then and he being the stubborn individual that he was refused to take insulin though he knew he was diabetic. He thought it was not macho to have to take shots of anything to keep you alive. He didn'****ch his diet and was quite overweight. My Mother on the other hand took care of her health and lived to 82 may she rest in peace. Who would have ever dreamed when I was a young man in the Air Force at age 17 that we would EVER have men walking around on the moon or doing space walks and all the miraculous things I have seen. One thing that has gotten worse in all these years is obesity. People used to do a lot more physical stuff on their jobs that now is done by machinary sitting in a chair watching the work being done for you. We have more different kinds of fast foods now and our kids are fed all that junk because it is a way of life in this country. Why is it that people in some of the poorer countries in many cases don't have the money to spend on that junk and work harder to stay alive and while they may have other health problems it is rare that obesity is one of them. Look how many lives have been saved and/or extended significantly because of WLS. We are the most overweight people in the world. Those of us who have had WLS for the most part are trying to make sure our kids do not eat the same junk that we did to get obese and sometimes it works and other times they do it anyway because of peer pressure. With all the danger and deaths of smoking and many of us have lost dear friends and family to respiratory diseases started or made worse by smoking. Some of us learned and some are still playing russian roulette with it. I miss my pipe I smoked for many years but gave up cigarettes after trying them in high school. Plus I had asthma and the smoking back then made it worse. I later outgrew the asthma. I have seen some spectacular things in my adult life being involved with NASA launches of man into space and a lot of joy was shared by all of us when those great things happened but I have also experienced heartbreak and sorrow when we lost astronauts during the manned space programs. My last space shuttle mission before I medically retired was the Challenger mission that exploded rite after launch. To be sitting on the Network Controller console at Vandenberg and watching this happen in realtime on our video monitors is a memory burned into my brain. Though I was long ago retired when we lost the Columbia a few years ago it was like turning back the clock because I worked with NASA on the Columbia's very first launch and remember the joy when we had a successful liftoff and when she landed safely with all crew members unharmed. Life can be very cruel sometimes and all of us have witnessed many of those things in our lives. The horrible things terrorists are doing throughout the world that we think ended during the dark ages, cutting off people's heads and such. I don't think it will happen but I would love to live long enough to see world peace before I die. I am sure all of you share that wish with me. I would love to see hatred from one man toward another soley because of his religion or the color of his skin or his political views all disappear and for man to realize that nothing is gained by killing others just because they think or believe different than you do. I do pray that my grandkids and the newer great grandkids will live to see these good things happen to humanity, a dream? maybe but I can only hope. I realize much of this post has no bearing on WLS but to me it is all related because it is about living and enjoying doing so thanks to modern medicine and our Creator who has the ultimate decision on what happens to who and when. All of my WLS family, be well and have a great life. Sincerely and with love Mike B. Mobile, Phoenix, AZ

And where would we all be with out you Mike. You are a true inspiration. To see that there is still life after WLS - especially 20 years is awesome! Thank you for sharing your stories with us! *HUGS* Tiff

I am glad to still be around here to help inspire new people. Thanks to medical tecknowledge and the newly learned skills of surgeons all of these things have been improved and continue to be every day. I have a friend in VA Beach who has a support group for long term wls people and has written some books on this and he is longer postop than I am 1979. He is still around, has gone through a bout with colon cancer and his surgeon is dead now but Bob is stil in there kicking. We exchange emails quite often and I belong to his wls support group. You have youth on your side. I was 48 when I had wls. I wish I had the opportunity to have it hears before but some of the ones that did have had even more problems with their wls than I did b/c the technowledge was still in it's infancy. You will do great Tiff and live to a ripe old age and see your kids grow up and get married and make you a grandma and the whole works. It is a long way down the road and quite a ride you have ahead of you but you will do it and successfully. G-D Bless Mike B. Mobile, Phoenix, AZ