Two weeks from today is my surgery date. I don't know what time, yet, but I know that on November 16th I will be going in for a sleeve gastrectomy, or gastric sleeve surgery. It is going to change a ton about my life and I am nervously looking forward to it.
I have spent nearly my entire life overweight. I started putting on the pounds when I was four years old. I know full well that genetics and lifestyle play a big part in my weight, but there was a kicking off point that was environmental. I was prescribed a drug called Hismanal (generic: astemizole) for allergies at this time. I was on it for several years. The drug was pulled from the US market for a number of reasons, but one of the most common side effects was weight gain. My weight gain correlated with me taking this medication. From there it just snowballed.
I was never thin after that point. It wasn't that I wasn't active. I wasn't a sit-at-home kid. I played outside a lot, spent time outdoors, played little league. I just think that the medication affected my metabolism and made it difficult for me to really lose weight when I was younger, and by my teenage years I just stopped trying as much. I was still active in many ways, but it was easier for me to be more sedentary with increased school work and some extra-curricular activities we won't get into. This is where those lifestyle choices really come into play. By this point, I was heavy enough that it was difficult for me to do many of the things that others my age could do.
I hit 300 pounds in high school. I tried playing football, but it was too physically demanding for me and, quite honestly, I was losing interest in a lot of things. I was dealing with depression and self-medicating in some ways. The former honor roll student failed a couple of classes because of disinterest in school. I graduated and went on with life, not really getting it together for another ten years or so. When they say the male brain doesn't fully develop until your mid-twenties, that's the truth. At least it was for me.
Throughout all of this, I was in Scouting. I enjoyed it tremendously and it was one of the things that probably kept me from making decisions that would push me even further astray. I signed up for Cub Scouts in first grade as a Tiger with Pack 42 at the Harrisonburg Baptist Church. Tigers were new at this time and weren't fully integrated into the Cub Scout program. It was much like Lions are today. I stuck with it and went all through Cubs. We had two awesome Den Leaders who put a ton of time into the program for us. In the end, a handful of us crossed over into what was then Boy Scouts, now called Scouts BSA, with Troop 42 at the same church. Only three of us really held on for any amount of time. Then two, then it was just me. But there were other troop members and we had an active, thriving troop.
We again had some outstanding adults who really put a lot of effort into the program and we had some great youth, as well. I was often the odd one out, being that I was usually the only one my age and also being as heavy as I was. I never let it keep me down, though. I stayed active. I worked three summers at Camp Shenandoah, I held several lodge offices in Shenandoah Lodge for the Order of the Arrow. I went to two NOACs and a National Jamboree. I was always too heavy to go to any of the high adventure bases, though. I knew that from the start.
As I was working on my Eagle and getting close to aging out, the new Scoutmaster and I did not get along very well. I wasn't keen on his leadership and he didn't like the OA, of which I was a prominent member. I ended up joining Venture Crew 124 in Tenth Legion and finished my Eagle with them. That Crew no longer exists and it is probably my biggest regret in Scouting that my Eagle certificate does not say Troop 42 on it. But I digress.
As an adult, my lifestyle choices weren't getting any better and when I turned 21 I took a hard look at myself and decided that I did not need to be an adult in the program. I was not a person for our youth to look up to. So with that, I left. I stayed up on the program, following the news, watching videos from Jamborees and NOAC, keeping up with people I knew from the "good ol' days." I graduated college, got on a career path. Got married. Got laid off. Got on a new career path. Started college again (because for-profit higher education is a scam, people). Then, as I am nearing the completion of my second undergraduate degree and my wife and I are house hunting, I decide to get involved in Scouting again.
During this time period I had reached a high point on my weight of 395 pounds. I ended up being diagnosed with diabetes. I quit smoking and worked on my health enough to get the diabetes under control, but I still had many other concerns. My weight went up and down but lately has settled right around 300 pounds, where I was in high school.
I don't have any kids, so I wasn't looking to join a unit. I had spent some time on the District Committee briefly years ago and so decided that would be a good way to get back into it. I reached out to people in the district (because I still kept up on things and knew how it worked) and turned in my application. Well, it took all of one meeting for me to get roped into Commissioner work, which I honestly enjoy tremendously. I was made the Assistant District Commissioner almost immediately because of my knowledge and enthusiasm for the program. Then COVID hit, and my District Commissioner was a doctor. We did not (and at this point still haven't) seen him back involved in the program since. I was made District Commissioner and have been since.
During this time I have been highly involved and one of extra things I did was a training to become an NRA rifle/shotgun instructor. During this training, one of the other participants and I were talking about his experiences with bariatric surgery. I had heard of it and honestly had a negative view of it to that point. My discussion with him changed my mind, though. I decided then and there to investigate. Within two months I had my first consult and began the one-year coaching from my insurance.
At one point they asked me a goal weight, and this wasn't something I had thought about. I just wanted to be able to be more active, do more things, and maybe not shop at a big and tall store. But one day I was filling out the health form for Scouting and noticed the height/weight chart at the bottom for high adventure activities. For my height of 5'8" the max weight was 214 pounds. That became my new goal. To be able to go to the high adventure bases was always a dream of mine. To possibly get the triple crown or maybe even the grand slam would be tremendous! I became more excited than ever to begin this journey.
Scouting has continued on as has my surgery prep, but so has COVID. There became a backlog of patients and a personnel change at the hospital resulting in a delay. My year was up in June and my original surgery estimation of August became November 2nd. Today. Then it got pushed back two more weeks because of the surgeon's schedule. Honestly, I am happy about that. I have to run a Roundtable tonight and march in a parade on Sunday, so surgery would have put a damper on all of that. But I started thinking about everything this morning and realized I would like to document this journey.
I now know five other Scouters in my circle that have had bariatric surgery. We tend to be our own little community. With everything we do in Scouting I had many questions about food while camping, keeping up nutrition on the trail, etc. So, I just decided I am going to blog about it. Not every post will be specifically about the way things are going with the bariatric surgery. I will probably talk about Scouting in general a lot. Maybe it will alleviate some of the Scouting talk my wife gets to hear. I've tried many blogs in the past, but none have stuck. Hopefully this one will.
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