A Clydesdale Carol, Part 4

(part 3 here)

Terry walked back into the home theater with a sub sandwich in one hand and a cold beer in the other.

"You ready to get started?" he asked.

"Um, yeah...sure," said Kevin.  "Do you mind if I...I didn't supper before we left and.."

"No way.  Forget it.  There's no eating on these paranormal awakenings.  You'll get cramps."  Terry took another mouthful.  "Ok, we're going to fly through these last slides, then we gotta get to the Last Thing."

"What's that," asked Kevin.

"It's the Last Thing before I turn you over to Barry, duh." said Terry.

Click.

"That's me working at the rubber parts factory.  I was going to graduate school half time, working full time, working at the radio station every other weekend.  We were married just about a year and a half and had a new baby.  I wasn't home much between the jobs and the schooling.  I would eat in the car and buy loads of crap from the vending machines.  I thought I was busy and doing well.  But looking back, I was lonely.  I was 240 and 26."

Click.

"That's my wife and I at a clothing store.  I was up to 245 pounds and we needed to buy me some new jeans--bigger jeans.  I felt really guilty since money was very tight.  I promised her I would lose the weight.  I had to lose the weight.  She asked how I was going to do it.  I didn't know.  And I didn't lose it.  I was 28."

Click

"That's the bookmobile trailer.  I managed the bookmobile program for about 5 years.  Several of the trailer stops were at convenience stores and grocery stores where we'd sit for whole day.  I would often get a 16 oz tub of French Onion dip and a big bag of chips and eat it throughout the day.  There were long periods of no patrons.  I was 29 and 250.

Click

"This is 2001.  My wife had gotten sick and was hospitalized.  We had three kids by then.  My wife was gone for about 4 months.  I had just started a new position at the library.  I ate to cope.  I was 31 and about 260."

Click

"This is 2003.  I was out mowing on a borrowed lawn mower.  My son wanted to sit on my lap and ride when I was finished.  But he couldn't fit.  He went in and told his mom that I was too fat for him to ride on the tractor. He was 7.  I was 33 and 275."

Click

The images on the screen started flying by.  Kevin couldn't keep up.  His wife's health.  His mother's cancer.  His job.  His children.  Too many thoughts.  Too many feelings.  Feelings of loneliness, of anger.  Of hating himself for getting fat and being fat.  Of disappointment. Of shame.  Of despair.

"Please, Terry.  Make it stop.  I don't want to  see this anymore."

"Yes," said Terry, softly and kindly, with a mouthful of sandwich.  "It's time then for the Last Thing."

There was the sound of 84 stern librarians named Delores loudly whispering !WHOOMP!

Kevin and Terry landed in a backyard.  It was cold, the mercury hovering just above zero.  The ground was white with a layer of fluffy snow.  But that only hid the danger below, four inches of solid ice.  A younger Kevin was laying on the ground.

"This is January 23, 2008.  I fell and broke my leg.  My foot twisted 180 degrees and then turned up to the right at the ankle.  My weight pushed my foot between the two bones in my lower leg.  It was 8 degrees.  I had my cell and called 911 and the rescue crew was there within minutes.  I was 310 pounds.  It took 6 of them to lift me on a backboard."

!WHEEEEE!

"That's me laying in the emergency room.  I've been there for 9 hours.  An abnormal EKG shows that I have an irregular rhythm.  Blood tests showed that I might have had a heart attack at some point earlier in my life.  The surgeon was trying to decide if my heart was strong enough to survive surgery.  In the end, it was the only choice."

!WHEEEE!

"I'm at home in my lazy boy, unable to put any weight on my leg for the next two months.  I cried.  I told my wife I was not strong enough to deal with this.  I had to have help in the shower and the toilet.  I was too heavy to use crutches so I used a walker.

"I remember siting in the shower, watching the water flow over and off my grotesque belly.  I hated myself so much right then.  I was a failure for letting this happen to my body.  I had broken my leg.  I had damaged my heart.  My blood pressure was through the roof.  I was one fasting glucose test away from diabetes.  I knew something had to change.  I had hit bottom."

Terry listened.  When Kevin paused, he asked  "What happened?"

"That summer I had a electrocardiogram and a chemical stress test.  They found my heart to be healthy, but the walls of the chamber that pumps to the rest of my body was slightly thickened after years of pushing against my blood pressure.

"I felt like I had been given a reprieve.  I had a healthy heart and mended leg.  It was time to start the hard work.  That fall, I joined the hospital weight loss program for the very obese."

"Yes, you did," said Jerry.  "And from what I learned from interviewing your family, they were all happy and very proud of you when you did.  Your mom and dad, your wife and your kids.  Remember that, Kevin, as you go to part 5"

There was the sound of one guy named Terry wearing a brown cotton polyester running suit with yellow stripes down the legs and sleeves shouting !WHOOP!