What happened on my 71st birthday that changed everything — and why I'm telling you about it now. It was July 11, 2025. My 71st birthday. I was sitting alone with the kind of clarity that only arrives when you stop running from the truth. I was 265 pounds. I was injecting insulin every day. My doctors had told me — more than once, in more than one way — that my condition was permanent. That this was simply what 71 looked like for a man who had survived acute pancreatitis, a