600 Pounds From Grace

by ftw420 | August 6, 2007 at 04:01 pm

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On December 5th 1971, he was born nine pounds, eleven ounces. Normal newborns loose weight after birth, but not him. One week later, when he left the hospital he was 14 pounds.

Within his first 4 years of life he had ballooned up to 90 pounds. Desperate to get his weight under control, his mother and doctors worked to help him lose. Within the next few years, normal children would gain weight. He lost weight. He managed to drop to 68 pounds but the age of 7.

But he started growing, and gaining. Despite efforts to keep his weight down, he continued to gain. By the time he had finish high school, he was fast approaching 300 pounds.

He suffered the slings and arrows of his peers in school, trying to fit in, but he was always shunned or became fodder for cruel pranks because of his weight.

In 1989, he moved from his home in Massachusetts to start a new life in the Lone Star State. But he phychological scars of his childhood in combination with his inablity to relate to his new surroundings relegated him to find comfort in food. Furthering his issue was his financial situation. His tuition for college had quadrupled in four years and he could no longer afford to go.

He took a job in the one industry that hires almost anyone. Fast food. he spent 10 years of his life there and added another 100 pounds to his frame.

And the end of the millenium, he had finally found something a bit more white collar. Call center work. What he didn't realize was the sedintary nature of the job versus his last carreer path would cause him to blow up to well over 500 pound. In 2004, he took stock of his life and decided to do something drastic. He fasted. For 47 days, he had nothering but juice and water. He lost almost 100 pounds in that time period. He started working out, walking and was feeling good. Then came the knee injury. He couldn't walk on the leg for more than a few minutes for several months. The weight started coming back with avengeance.

He decided the only alternative was weight surgery. He met with doctors, followed their plans, lost some weight, but nothing that put a dent in his now 600+ pound frame. All in preparations to meet insurance requirements for lap-band surgery. He submitted once, and was declined. Obesity surgery was an exclusion under his company's policy. but there was still hope. His company was changing insurance companies. So, he met with the doctors again, and they found out the new insurance company's requirements. He spent another 6 moths to meet every one of the requirements. He submitted again. A week later he got a call from his doctor's office stating that the new insurance has the same exclusion. The reason being that his employer is self insured. His insurance only administers the plan. That being the case, they could not override it. After consulting with a lawyer, he was told that he'd spend $100,000 fighting for a $20,000 surgery and he still would probably lose, despite it being a life threatening situation.

Not being one to quit, he started seaching for alternatives, obesity studies, contests, anything that would allow him to get the surgery. While doing this, he came across a site call Save Karyn. Raised $20,000 to pay off credit card debt by requesting that visitors donate a dollar or two during their visit. She was successful. And he came up with a plan.

He started researching and realized that this was called "cyberbegging" and that several people had sucessful sites with this method. He decided to start a site of his own.

His site is relatively plain, has a few pictures and provides resourses for obesity, obesity rights and lap-band surgery. He called it http://www.stevenneedshelp.com. Pretty short and to the point.

He says that he hasn't gotten any donations yet, and that's sad because he's a good guy, but he will keep trying. He is encouraged by the fact that he has had over 300 visitors from 12 countries.

"Obesity isn't something that is an annomally anymore" he said. "It's in the news, it's in the workplace, and it's probably in your family. there is a cure, but most insurace companies and employers wont cover it. They'd rather treat the symptoms, like my diabetes or recurring kidney issues, all of which would be cured if the weight could be lost. It's troublesome that I have to resort to a site like this for my issue, but I have exhausted my other methods. I am simply offering a trade, I'll offer information on obesity related issues and you donate a dollar or two."

Steven is one of 100+million Americans facing this issue and the nubers are growing. Stop by his site and see what he offers, and maybe drop a dollar here or there if you can.

To visit Steven's site click on the link: http://www.stevenneedshelp.com