They’re giving me morphine now but it’s not looking good. My blood pressure went so high they said that my blood vessels burst and it could kill me. Whatever happens just know that I love you and stay close to God okay?
Okay but what should I…
Everythings gonna be alright, just stay close to God. I have to go, they want me to close my eyes now.
…
My eyes filled with water and my stomach sank.
I had to sit down on a stool and process what had just happened. I felt useless.
I felt like a traitor. I was 3,000 miles away from the most important person in my life and he was about to die alone.
After a very long night and lots of phone calls, I finally heard from some family members back home.
Dad survived the night, and was actually showing some improvements.
His blood pressure had finally normalized, but they wanted to keep him a few extra days.
By the end of the week he was released, and I was so happy and relieved, I promised that I would come visit as soon as possible.
When I finally got to see him, we both promised each other we’d do something about our diets.
We were both about 50 pounds overweight.
Even worse, my next doctor visit resulted in a severe warning about my high blood pressure!
My doctor said that if I don’t make a serious change, I’m going to end up like my dad, on several medications for blood pressure, diabetes, hypertension…
Plus, they don’t tell you that each of those pills gives you side effects, causes organ damage, and requires even more pills for those same side effects!
So I vowed to make a change, for my doctor, my own health, and for my dad.
But where was I going to start?
Well, I thought about the one place my dad and I always went when I was a kid:
I grabbed my notebooks, and I went to the library.
I checked out all the most popular diet books.
I examined “Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution.”
I poured over "The South Beach Diet."
I devoured "The Flat Belly Diet.”
Then I stumbled onto some old body building books.