From Sumo To Sinatra - A Gastric Bypass Surgery Success
Standing on stage at St. Bart's Square in central London,
looking out over 14,000 cheering fans, all I could think was,
"How does a guy like me get to a place like this?" It was June
2001, and I was performing alongside world-renowned artists like
Tony Bennett and Paul McCartney as part of the celebration of
Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee. I was undoubtedly more
awestruck than any audience member at the event. I had only
started singing the year before, the professional culmination of
an indescribable emotional and psychological journey that
started in the spring of 1997, when I underwent gastric bypass
surgery.
I sported a size 40 regular canary yellow zoot suit for the
Queen's concert, strutting confidently back and forth across the
stage as I sang big band classics to an audience of thousands.
Five years and one month prior, those few steps would have left
me gasping for air. Back then, I weighed exactly 400 pounds, and
I had lost all hope. My life had become unmanageable. I checked
myself into the hospital and declared "physical bankruptcy" as I
turned my body over to the experts--a team of doctors and nurses
who offered me a one-time chance to start over.
Like many gastric bypass surgery patients, I had been overweight
most of my life. As a child I was euphemistically called
"husky," and I managed to use my weight to my advantage by
playing football starting in the second grade. But by middle
school, the coaches had to move me up a league level because I
was heavier than the other children my age. In the next league,
my teammates just called me fat, and I was relegated to the
position of benchwarmer. I couldn't have been more miserable.
After high school, I entered in the Navy in hopes I could see
the world and all it had to offer. Not long after boot camp, I
was stationed in far northern Japan as a liaison between the
military police and the local Japanese law enforcement. For a
bit of fun and exercise, I signed up for the base football team.
Ironically, a month later the city mayor and base commander were
watching a game when they struck upon the wild idea of
recruiting me into the sport of sumo. (You know, the fat guys in
diapers?) I went to my first practice the very next day and was
on the amateur sumo wrestling circuit a few weeks later, serving
as a sort of goodwill ambassador to Japan while competing in
cities across the country.
My salvation came one morning as I was getting ready for work. I
was listening to Good Morning America on the television as I
went about my usual routine, and my ears perked up as Charlie
Gibson read a report about a radical new surgery for the
morbidly obese. I immediately read everything I could get my
hands on about this new gastric bypass technique, and I
eventually qualified for the surgery after being diagnosed with
sleep apnea. Three months after hearing the report on the
morning news, I was admitted in the hospital having weight loss
surgery.
After weight loss surgery, the weight truly just melted away. I
lost nearly 200 pounds in a year's time and could not believe
the transformation I was seeing right before my own eyes as I
dropped down from a waist size of 56 inches to just 34 inches.
The biggest challenge during this time was not cutting back on
food or increasing my physical activity, but rather the lack of
mental and emotional support available to weight loss patients.
Because gastric bypass surgery was still a new procedure, there
were no support groups or help centers for those of us who had
undergone the treatment. The doctors were great about the
mechanics of the surgery, but they had no idea what it was like
inside of a brain that had just gone through such a radical
change. I strongly encouraged my surgeon to set up a regular
meeting for his patients, so they could share their experience
and insight with one another. Today, his weekly sessions
regularly draw 20 to100 pre- and post-op patients. (I also
created my own website for gastric bypass patients this year and
am working on a self-help book for people who have had the
surgery.)
I came to realize that the weight was never really the problem,
but rather, a symptom of other unresolved issues. Although I was
grateful for the weight loss surgery and the transformation that
followed, I discovered it could never be a complete solution,
because it was a physical remedy applied to a mental, emotional
and spiritual problem. Like taking an aspirin for the pain of a
brain tumor, the gastric bypass only addressed the most
superficial part of a serious illness. I was now realizing that
to accurately get to the root of the problem, I had to stop
focusing on my waistline, and start focusing on the gray matter
between my ears. So, what did I really want? Now that the fat
suit was gone, I was left with me, but I didn't know who "me"
was.
In the four years since deciding to pursue my dreams I have
performed on three continents, appeared in local and national
media, and rubbed elbows with celebrities. I have established
three set-ups of my 17-piece big band--one in Dallas, one in
London and one in Tokyo--and recorded a critically acclaimed CD.
"How does a guy like me get to a place like this?"