Keeping up with Caleb
A three-year-old named Caleb gave Richard Bosley the reason he needed to undergo gastric bypass surgery.
"He's my buddy, and I couldn't keep up with him," says Richard of his grandson. At 408 pounds, Richard's 55-year-old knees ached badly. A trip to Disney World with Caleb, 8-year-old step-grandson Aiden, and other family sealed the deal. "Between the heat and my knees, it was a terrible trip."
Fourteen months later and 168 pounds lighter, Richard's achy knees are no more. And heat doesn't bother him a bit. In fact, nine months after his gastric bypass, he walked the entire Flying Pig Marathon. "The boys joined me the last quarter mile." Now he's training to run the 2011 Marine Corp. Marathon in Arlington, Virginia with his daughter, Karen.
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"Today, I can't believe how much better I feel," says Richard. Although he avoids sugar, including Snickers -"I used to be addicted to Snickers!" -Richard says he eats what he wants, just a lot less of it. He and wife, Debra, who has lost 103 pounds after her own gastric bypass, now share a meal at restaurants, often returning home with leftovers. Daughter Brenda also had gastric bypass and is 150 pounds lighter.
The entire experience left Richard pleasantly surprised. Two weeks of a restricted diet prior to his procedure "wasn't too bad," he says. He had gastric bypass on a Monday in August 2009. Within hours he was sitting in a chair. Three days later he was home with no reason to fill the prescription for painkillers. "That kind of shocked me because I'm a sissy!" The next day Richard was walking the neighborhood. "I wasn't walking fast," he laughs. "But I was out there."
Now 240 pounds, Richard isn't walking the neighborhood. He's running. "I've got my eye on that marathon. I know I can do it." And he has no trouble keeping up with Caleb, now 4. "I took him to the beach this past summer. We swam in the ocean, played on the beach. It was great!"