You Mean Ya Didn't Seeeeeee?!

A few days ago, a program on TV showed a 1072lbs man being literally cut out of his apartment and driven to the hospital. His family said he was always hungry as a child, and weighed 240lbs by the time he was in 6th grade! People told them it was 'baby fat' and that it would come off as he got older. As we know now, it didn't. To describe the man as anything human-looking is insane. He looks like a giant balloon with a knob for a head at the top. I don't mean to sound mean or anything. I felt terrible for the man! He said he saw himself as the 'Michelin man'. He couldn't move out of his bed, they had to tear down the bedroom wall to get him out of the place, and it took half a dozen people to do so. And while they were doing all that, he was smoking one last cigarette. Now, OBVIOUSLY, this man has some sort of disease, if not an addiction to food that has been overindulged over the years. He suffers now from several more problems due to his obesity. He didn't live alone. He's married. And here's the crazy part: his wife said she realized he was overweight, but didn't understand how bad it really affected him until they told her now! My first reaction was to think: How could you not see that?!! How could you not say or do anything until now?! But then I thought about how many times we are in denial when an illness or addiction clearly is affecting one of our loved ones. It happens to "other" people not us or our close ones. Loving someone is accepting them as they are. But to really love them is also to be their eyes when they can't see that they are tumbling head first into a darkness of disease, addiction or mental illness.The 1072lbs man has undergone gastric by-pass surgery and has lost 513lbs so far - nearly half his weight! Here he is "half the man he was" but with the best fighter mentality a man could wish for. Patrick Deuel, we all wish you the best!