Life will never be the same for Osgood woman
Wanda English Burnett - Editor

Char Bultman of Osgood, knows that her life will never be the same and that suits her just fine. She has lost a whopping amount of weight, 200 pounds, and overcome a number of obstacles to become the woman she is today, a third of the person she was two years ago.

She described her ordeal as a "journey" deciding to share her story with others to encourage people who are morbidly obese as she was. "If I can just give one person hope," she noted, continuing, "it will have been worth it."

Bultman first shared her story with readers of the Osgood Journal in March of 2004, three months after her gastric bypass surgery. At that time she told that the surgery wasn't easy, matter of fact, she was rushed back to the hospital due to massive blood loss after the surgery. For people who think gastric bypass surgery is the easy way out, she emphatically replies, "There's nothing easy about it!"

From the beginning of her "journey" until now, Bultman has been through a number of surgeries, most she feels related to her weight. She has had a hysterectomy, her top teeth all cut out, and 17 pounds of skin surgically removed not to mention an infection that had her in the hospital three days. She had a "knot" in her stomach, that at first was thought to be a hernia. It turned out to be a blood clot.

While Dr. Wesley Alexander called her his "star" patient, because she followed the rules explicitly, he did tell her "if something bad was going to happen, it seemed to happen to her."

Scarred from one hip bone to the other, Bultman will bear the reality of life as an overweight person forever. She noted that the pain she felt after the removal of skin was "excruciating, the worst she's ever had." At first her doctor told her he thought she would have about 50 pounds of skin to be removed. Because of her diligence to exercise, he only had about 17 pounds to take off and said it was "the toughest he had ever seen," according to Bultman.

After the skin removal surgery, that's when Bultman got an infection. It was nothing she or the doctor had done wrong, it just happened. "I didn't want to go back to the hospital...again," she noted. Saying he hadn't had a patient in 27 years of his practice get that kind of an infection, Bultman's doctor aggressively treated her, first hospitalizing her and then when she came home she wore a "vacuum pack" to keep infection out.

Bultman says she has learned a lot in her two year voyage. "People treat me differently," she noted, saying, "women surprise and disappoint me the most." She says now women she doesn't even know will walk up to her and begin a conversation, whereas before they would just stare. She admitted men treat her differently as well. "People just treat fat people rude," she commented.

Wearing her size 14 jeans and just a large shirt (which is baggy), she enjoys some simple things - sitting cross-legged, bending over to retrieve something from the floor, and being able to actually see her feet! She went from a size 5x-6x clothing to what she wears today.

She still has some skin excess in her stomach area that bothers her, but, "it doesn't hang down to my knees," she laughed. She is able to laugh now, but still has moments of remembering how hard it was and how she was treated. "I've struggled my whole life with weight issues," she noted.

Now she's more conscious than ever about food and wants to eat things that are good for her and small portions. She'll never give up exercising, saying it has truly changed her life.

Bultman still suffers from chronic pain from arthritis and a lung surgery incurred from a car accident a few years ago, but she says she has a new lease on life. She loves to dance, walk, listen to her favorite band, "One Brick Shy," and wear clothes she hasn't been able to in years. She's had to have her wedding bands resized from a 7 1/2 to a 5 1/2.

Through two years of excruciating pain and emotional agony, Bultman has found herself not only through her weight loss, but salvation. While losing weight was a huge accomplishment, one she is most proud of is her baptism certificate, signifying that she is a Christian. "I don't know what I'd do without my church, Holton Christian, and Pastor Bob McCreary," she noted. "The people are so supportive there and I find peace," she noted.

Husband Tim has been her rock for years and was by her side throughout her weight loss. "He was there when I gained and stuck by me when I lost it all," laughed Bultman. She noted that she has had many friends and people who have been "there for her." My best friend, Becky Johnson came and stayed with me after being hospitalized, my sister, Karen Smith, was always there when I needed her and the people at Curves were friends along with doing their jobs. She thanked her children and grandchildren for their support and actually noted the grandchildren were inspiration in the beginning to even begin to lose the weight. "I wanted to play with them and be there for them," she noted.

Bultman thanked another great friend, Teresa Isaacs, her Avon representative Janie Grigsby, who has helped her with make-up and lotions, her church for their support and her doctor for his expertise. "I want to thank God for giving me another lease on life. By rights, I shouldn't even be alive, but I guess He had a plan for me," she concluded.

From this..............	......to this.
PHOTOS BY WANDA ENGLISH BURNETT