3%

I have a co-worker who is morbidly obese. A great guy, funny as hell, he’s got a few kids. He walks around with an insulin monitor and pump wired into his body. He’s got severe sleep apnea, uses a CPAP. He was in the hospital for 3 weeks last year, lost some weight while there, and gained it back as soon as he got out.

Today he was talking about how the CPAP was no longer working. His doctor wanted to shave down his pallet and his sinus bones. I knew from my own doctor that getting that done doesn’t guarantee the problem will be fixed. So I spoke up.

I told him he should consider doing what I did. I told him how you learn to live with it. I told him how much better you feel walking around at a healthy weight. I told him how I wasn’t on any medications, using my CPAP, how I don’t even snore. He said he was now 295. He said he’d talk to his doctor. I found that I had one of Dr. Buchin’s info disks in my bag, so I gave it to him, explaining what it was. He said he’d check it out.

Now… I really don’t know if he will do any of the things he said he would. Logically I thought about it and decided the odds of any of this having any effect on his long term health would be maybe 3%. Maybe.

I spoke to Veronica about it and she said, “Some people aren’t ready to give up food.”

I said, “Yeah, but everyone wants to stay alive. Sometimes those two things don’t work together. You can learn to live without food; you can’t learn **** when you’re dead.”

Yes, I know you can’t really live without food, literally. I mean abusing food, watching what you eat, eating healthy… you know what I mean… don’t be a smart ass.

So yeah, 3%, they are really ****ty odds. But he has an option. I wonder if he tossed the disk into the crematory here at work. I’ve no idea, really. But I tried. Everyone finds the path in their own time and stays on it as long as they choose. He’s got the same shot as anyone else, the same chance as the rest of it. Hell, 3% means that three people ACTUALLY will do something …actually take the steps to make a change.

I hope he’ll be one of those three. He’s a great guy. It would suck working here without him.