's motd Tues April 8, 2008

[Guest guest]

INTERVENE

Tuesday, 08 April 2008

A very sweet lady who has been on a few of my cruises wrote me the other day to tell me that she was "so worried about her husband." You see, her husband is morbidly obese and since we have known each other, she has confided her concerns about him to me a few times. Tears would always come to her eyes whenever she talked about him.She told me he was a good man, a good husband and father, a good provider and owned his own accounting business. They had three beautiful daughters and her family lived a very comfortable life together.

She told me her husband loved to go out for dinner and they did so often, usually three to four times a week. She told me how she'd sit across from her husband and watch as he consumed thousands of calories in just one sitting.She also told me that her husband needed a sleep-apnea machine to help him breathe at night. He would get up several times during the night to use the restroom or to get some water to drink. Then she told me something that I've heard quite a few times. She admitted, "I'm afraid that I'll wake up some morning, roll over and find my husband dead, !"It really hurt me to think what this poor lady was going through with those concerns about her husband's weight. And that last E-mail she wrote was a carbon copy of so many E-mails I have received in the past. I just had to call her.

She cried on the phone as we talked but I told her that her crying days over her husband and his weight were over. I insisted that she had to intervene and get the help her husband so desperately needed. I mean, she had to intervene and get help for him or indeed...she would lose him!I told her that she had to pick up the phone and call his doctor. Then I told her that she had to pick up the phone again to call her husband's mother and sister. I pointed out to her that her husband was obviously not capable of losing this weight alone. She was going to have to put a support system together for him.She promised me that she would put that support team together for him She told me that she was going to include the minister from their church on that team, too. Her husband trusted their minister very much and I agreed with her that he could be a valuable member of his support system. I pray that she truly follows through with all of these plans.

And how about you? Are you married to or love someone who is morbidly obese and drowning in their own fat? Well if you are, it's time to throw them a lifesaver! And just like the lady I told you about, that lifesaver should include family, friends and loved ones to help this loved one of yours stay alive. Please, don't put it off any longer. It's...Time to intervene!Love,