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Spotlight
Forty and Feeling Fine:
The Malcolm Bywaters Story
By
Amy Morton
Spotlight Health
Growing up in Australia
with three older siblings and three younger siblings, Malcolm Bywaters
truly was “Malcolm in the Middle.” He was also the big person in the
family, having struggled with his weight as long as he could remember. It
wasn’t long before he noticed the way heavy people were treated, sometimes
even by their own relatives.
“One of my younger sisters was with her friends from high school, and I
was at the shop across the road,” Malcolm recalls. “I walked over as they
were getting lunch, and she ignored me. They’re all pointing at me, saying
how big and fat I am, and she didn’t even acknowledge that I was her
brother. That’s one moment I always remember.”
Malcolm soon learned to ignore incidents like that one, but entering
adulthood, he couldn’t escape the growing problem of his weight. Having
apprenticed as a boiler-maker and welder, he enjoyed doing physical work and tackling odd
jobs of varying scope. But health complications soon began interfering
with his ability to do the job. He couldn’t walk without pain, and he
would periodically find himself laid up.
“I was getting cortisone injections in each foot every six weeks,” he
says. “I had arthritis in my right knee. And my sciatic nerve used to get
pinched every now and then, which meant I wouldn’t be able to move for a
couple days.” As his weight climbed, Malcolm eventually had to give up
physical labor. He opened a hobby shop, but it wasn’t long before he had
to go on a temporary pension as a result of his mounting health problems.
Visiting the doctor at age 32, Malcolm weighed in at 530 pounds (BMI 67).
The prognosis was bleak. “My doctor told me, ‘You have to do something, or
you’re not going to see 40,’” he remembers. Having tried everything from
medically supervised diets to hypnotherapy, he didn’t know what to do.
Then his mother told him about a weight loss procedure she’d heard about
called the LAP-BAND.
Today Malcolm credits his mother with saving his life. Since undergoing
surgery on May 14, 1999, he has lost 320 pounds and 17 inches from his
waist. At 210 pounds (BMI 27), he is just 20 pounds from his goal and
content to take his time getting there. “It’s within sight,” he says. “I’m
smaller now than when I did my apprenticeship two decades ago.” Even
better, the pain in his feet, the arthritis, the sciatic nerve problems,
and the sleep apnea that would wake him up two to three times an hour have
all resolved.
Malcolm’s journey was not without some bumps, however. His reservoir port
had to be replaced; his band slipped, requiring a repositioning; and he
caught an infection in the hospital. He also had a bout with kidney
stones, something that had plagued him even before surgery. But he never
doubted his eventual success. “I wasn’t going to give up on it or let any
of the problems get me down,” he says. “I knew the band was working. I’d
lost 100 pounds before I had a complication.”
Last August, Malcolm cemented his success by overcoming the prognosis he
received eight years ago. He’d made it to 40. He had his health back. He
had his life back.
But the best part, says Malcolm, is that he found someone to share it
with—something that hadn’t seemed possible before. “As soon as they found
out how big I was, women didn’t want to know me,” he says. “But after the
surgery, I got the courage to go online to one of the dating sites, and I
met Jayne. I told her about my surgery, she told me about her MS, and we
supported each other through the whole lot. I ended up coming over to
America, where she lived, and proposing. It was beyond my wildest dreams.”
Married since November of 2003, Malcolm and Jayne now reside in San Jose,
California. With his mobility restored, Malcolm has resumed his trade as a
handyman, and he’s never felt better about his energy and strength. “I did
a job recently where I had to carry 30 bags of cement, about 80 pounds
each, up four floors,” he says. “I did that on my own. Before, I think I
would have died. I could have never done it, and now I can. That feels
great.”
Malcolm’s confidence got another boost when he was recently invited to be
the keynote speaker at the Texas Bandster Bash. “I’m a lot more outgoing
now,” he says. “I was persuaded tell my story to about 150 people at that
event. If I was as big as I was before, there’s no way I would have stood
up and talked in front of anyone. But I did it, and afterwards people came
up to rub me on the back and say, ‘We want your magic.’”
With five years experience with the band, Malcolm has realized that he is
a veteran with insightful tips to share. For example, he counsels other
bandsters about a humorous condition he calls “bony butts.” “There is a
lot less cushioning, trust me,” he says with a laugh. “I had bruises on my
butt because my bones were so much more prominent. You learn you have hip
bones. Collarbones and shoulder blades, too. I never knew!”
As he prepares to celebrate his 41st birthday this month, Malcolm is
looking forward to tackling new adventures, such as paragliding and snow
skiing. But most importantly, he’s excited to share many of the same goals
as everyone else now. “I want to see 90 years old,” he says. “I want to
stay fit. I want to keep the weight off. And I want to make sure I live a
long and healthy life with my wife, as long as we can.”
Malcolm would like to dedicate his story to his late mother, Anne
Bywaters, who died four weeks before his wedding last year. Read more
about him at
www.lapbandtransformation.com.
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