Thank you, and I am back from the hospital

July 18, 2003

Dear Brothers, Sisters, Drs., Family, and Friends:

Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, suggestions, help, and support. The

amount of e-mail and phone calls that we received has been an overwhelming show

of love and support. Thank you all so very much! To the folks on the BID Weight

Loss Program team, thank you so much for answering my wife's questions and for

your well wishes. You all have been so wonderful to us! It was a great comfort

to us both to know that you were there if we had any questions on how to

proceed.

Although I am a little sore and a lot tired, I am not all that worse for wear.

Dr. Brake at Falmouth Hospital did the surgery, getting the appendix out

laproscopically. He also repaired the umbilical hernia (I still have the big

one up top) because he was going through that area to get to the appendix. As

Jo Ann wrote, they got it before it burst, which was a blessing. Dr. Brake is

the one who treated me when I had that unrelated complication after the by-pass

surgery. He was quite surprised to see how much weight I had lost! He is also

very familiar with Gastric Bypass, as we talked extensively about it last year.

One thing that did surprise me was some of the questions that the ER doc and the

ER nurses had about the surgery. They really do not know much about it. They

said things that showed a great deal of learning is needed in the area of weight

loss surgery in hospitals that do not have a program but who may be treating

people who have had the surgery.

Most importantly, I want to thank God for being in control of this whole

situation!! He made sure that I stayed here instead of going to Mexico. I have

to confess that I was more than a little bit disappointed (actually,

heartbroken) that I was not on that plane to Mexico for the missions trip on

Monday, but as always, God has shown me that He means what He says, and Romans

8:28 still stands (All things work together for good to those who love the Lord

and are called according to His purpose). For those of you who heard the

teaching that I did on Wednesday night, you know how much He was speaking to me

in that message, as I had to live it just a few hours later. God is good!

So, I will not be able to pitch in the game tonight (please pray for Lance!), I

am not allowed to lift weights at the gym for three weeks, I can go back to work

on Tuesday but cannot do anything strenuous until three weeks out. No swimming

for three weeks. He said that I can try the bike in a couple of weeks, but that

if it hurts at all, I have to wait.

Oh, and Alan, the appendix DOES count toward weight loss, so I am now officially

off the plateau! :-) Jeff, please update me to -152!!

God bless you all, and thanks again!

Joe

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