goes undetected. I started gaining weight really fast, a pound or two a day. I had not changed anything in my diet. I was still walking all over campus and officiating sports, but nothing could slow the weight gain. My clothes stopped fitting, I started having trouble walking and had to stop officiating basketball because I could no longer run up and down the court. I had headaches, muscle aches, and problems sleeping, plus I developed stretch marks on my stomach. After six months, I had gained ninety pounds and now weighed 265 pounds.
My wife complained that I started to snore. At first, it was only annoying, but as the weight continued to pile on, the snoring became louder and louder. It reached a point that she could no longer sleep in the same room as me. In fact, she would leave the room after I fell asleep, close the door to our bedroom and go to the opposite side of the house to try to sleep, but she could still hear me snoring.
Concerned about my unexplained weight gain and the snoring issue, I visited one of the campus doctors. I told him about the rapid, unexplained weight gain, my trouble walking, my inability to continue officiating and other symptoms. His diagnosis was that I had just hit the age when the body stops working as efficiently and that I was eating too much and not exercising enough. He prescribed lower calories and time at the gym. I told him that I really believed something was wrong. I wasn’t eating that much and I was pretty active, walking everyday to and from classes, and walking to the bus stop. I was walking at least three to four miles a day. I showed him my stretch marked sides and he said that I had gained weight so fast that my skin couldn’t keep up.
He said, “Son, it is a simple formula. What you take in, less what you use up. If you take in too much, you gain weight; if you take in less, you lose. You need to stop lying to yourself, it’s time to get disciplined, start watching what you eat and do more exercise. You’re not a kid anymore.”
Still not satisfied, I asked him how many calories a day a person would have to eat in order to gain ninety pounds in six months. Wouldn’t that have to be something like five thousand to six thousand calories a day?
He simply said, “I don’t know, but you must have done it.”
I didn’t really think it was possible for me to eat enough to gain ninety pounds that quickly, but that was the doctor’s diagnosis and he was the expert, so he must be right. But it didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t think I was eating too much and I was exercising more than most people I knew, I guess I must need to work harder. So I did. I started to walk even more. I would not go to the student lounge between classes, but would walk the campus until my next class. I really started to watch what I ate. My wife and I tried the Atkins diet and I lost some weight at first, but then things stabilized and the weight came back, plus more.
By the time graduation day arrived, I was up to between 275 and 285. I’m not sure the exact weight because I was too ashamed to weigh myself. Looking back at pictures taken that day, I remember being so large I barely found a shirt with a collar big enough to button so I could wear a tie. My neck size was more than 22 inches. My face was always bright red; people asked me if I had been out in the sun because it looked like I was sunburnt. My sides looked like I had been whipped because of the purple stretch marks and I was snoring so loudly my wife couldn’t even sleep in the same room as me.
Our Move to Washington, D.C. and Ohio
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds. —Psalm 73:28
I was thrilled to have received three job offers when I graduated from graduate school at Virginia Tech and chose to accept the offer from Columbia Energy Group, located in northern Virginia. I was selected to be in a very competitive Executive Manager Rotation Program called STEP that exposed the new hires to at least three different departments of the company over a two to three-year period. It would give me a chance to find what area of the business I liked the most and it gave management the opportunity to see how I performed in their department.
Lisa and I moved to Ashburn, Virginia on July 4, 1999, the hottest Fourth of July in the last 100 years with an actual temperature of 103 degrees. After getting settled in, I joined a gym in the area and began walking for thirty minutes every day before work. Once our insurance was in effect, I saw a doctor about my snoring and a sleep study was performed. I checked in to the hospital for my sleep study and was hooked up to electrodes and detectors , and I had to wear a cap with wires coming out from every direction. I was also hooked up to a breathing monitor and heart monitor. I couldn’t imagine how I was expected to sleep with all of these wires and contraptions attached to me. But after several hours, I finally managed to drift off to sleep. After only three hours of sleep, I was awakened by the technician. He reported that I had a very bad case of sleep apnea. I was waking up about sixty to seventy times each hour and was never getting to REM sleep. He fitted me with a c-pap machine that night and I slept well the rest of the night. The next morning I was given my own c-pap. This stopped my terrible snoring and Lisa was able to move back into our bedroom, which was a good thing since we were trying to start our family.
My weight had dropped since my graduation day and stabilized at 230 – 240 pounds. Due to my excessive weight, I began to experience problems with my back, knees and other joints. I was sore and stiff and everybody said it was because I was just getting older and also that my weight was playing a part. No matter what I did with exercise or diet, I could not lose weight. I would later find out that the joint pain and stiffness was a symptom of the disease.
In the spring of 2000, I was involved in a car accident. A co-worker and I were rear-ended during a rainstorm. I was taken to the hospital with severe back pain. I had x-rays taken and was told that I didn’t have any broken bones. However, I was still experiencing severe back pain so I stayed home for a couple of days on pain medicine. After a week, I returned to work but still had back pain. I learned years later that my back was actually broken in that car accident. The fractures showed up when I had more x-rays taken, my doctor was trying to determine the cause of my pain and stiffness.
While living in northern Virginia, we started attending a new type of church. We had both grown up in conservative, very traditional churches but decided to visit Christian Fellowship Church in Ashburn, Virginia just across from the Washington Redskin’s practice facility. There were several football players that attended and the worship service was very lively and active. Christian Fellowship Church was non-denominational but had roots in charismatic movement and believed in healing, speaking in tongues and believer’s authority. This was something new for us but we enjoyed it. We joined a small group and began experiencing God in a new and fresh way.
During this time, our attempts to start a family were not successful and we began to wonder if it was due to physical issues with either me or Lisa. She was having heavy bleeding and cramping each month, more than was normal. Lisa went to her doctor and was told that she had several fibroid tumors. During a follow-up appointment, the doctor diagnosed her as having a cancerous growth in addition to four tumors. She was referred to a specialist.
We met with our small group and asked for prayer. They all gathered around us and laid their hands on Lisa, anointing her with oil. When they prayed, they did so with authority and confidence, not like they were begging or even asking for God to heal her, but with expectancy and commanding voices. They condemned the devil’s work in making Lisa sick and demanded that the cancer leave her body. We had never heard this type of prayer before but could feel a power surrounding us.
Lisa saw the specialist a week later and there was no cancer to be found. It was gone! The specialist looked at the reports from the other doctor and examined her again.
He said, “Now, why are you here? I see what the doctor wrote but there is no cancer. I’m not saying he was wrong but whatever
