Present Day Update

First of all, I would like to say thank you to everyone who has so thoughtfully responded to my posts and this blog. I can't tell you how your comments have touched my heart and given me confidence in this struggle. God is so good, all the time and has blessed me with wonderful family and friends. I love you and thank you.

This post is a break from the emotional exercise of writing "my story" so that everyone can understand what I  will be doing in the next several days. I have stated before that this decision to have the bypass surgery was not taken lightly but through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving I made my request to God. And as He promised the peace that passes understanding is mine. I long for the new phase of my life to begin. This fat body that I have carried around so long has been a prison that I would not wish upon anyone. I hurt when I see others that have the same handicap from which I suffer. There is an unspoken acknowledgment between us because we know that we both battle the same evil.

Let me make myself perfectly clear on one thing that I may not have stated earlier. I take full responsibility for the condition that I am in. I have been the one who put every bite into my mouth. I have been the one who has eaten when I was not hungry but wanted to drown some sorrow or celebrate some victory. It is true that I have many reasons for the situation in which I now live, but no one living or dead is responsible for who I have become, but me. I don't wish to paint a picture of poor pitiful David who was abused and had no way out of his sad existence. This blog is a personal emotional regurgitation of years of suppressed and denied feelings that I want to share with others. It is my desire that anyone who reads these words of mine will be blessed by what they read. Perhaps giving you license in your own life to get rid of some of the baggage that has held you captive for so long. 

However, I will fail miserably at this desire if you do not leave from this experience knowing that I serve a loving and wonderful Savior namely Jesus Christ. Who through His grace and mercy has seen fit to allow me to continue to draw breath and press on towards the calling to which we are all given. I wish to bring Him glory. I must let you know that I am only here today because of His love for me and because I have further work to do for His kingdom. And I pray that anyone who is a Born again believer in Him recognize their opportunity also. We all have a story. You never know who will be touched by yours.

OK, so enough on the soap box. I go under the knife Monday morning around 7:00am. I have to be at the hospital at 5:30am for some pre-op stuff and I am first in the OR so I am imagining that as you have your first cup of coffee I will be in dream land as they cut my stomach into a little pouch and reconnect it to my intestine after they "bypass" about 10 feet or so. Please remember to pray for my wife and children. Shelley is having a tough time with me having this surgery. So much so that she is having dreams of me dying on the table. I know this is an attack from Satan because he does not want me to be a smaller version but we know that God is in control and His is the victory already!!!!

I should be in the hospital for around two to three days and then home, where I will begin my new life of making sure I get the nutrition my body requires every day. Please pray that I will master the art of the sip versus the gulp. I know I will get it all eventually and I look forward to sharing all the experiences with you here in escape from "Fat-catraz", yeah I know a little weird title but original!! Kind of like me...a little weird, but definitely original.

I am looking at the clock and seeing that it is 4:48am and I need to try to get some sleep so I will close here and let you know that I covet your prayers and appreciate all you have done to encourage and lift me and my family up before our awesome God. I of course will not be here for a while, I will be enjoying my pain medication and "fussing over" at the hospital. (Julie Sawyer I sure do wish you were going to be my nurse!!)

Please take care of yourselves and each other. If you don't then who will read all this mess?