Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.

Before the age of 13, I was a skinny little girl. But, at that tender age, I went to the doctor's for my physical prior to entering middle school, and encountered some rather hurtful remarks from my doctor. As soon as he said hello, he turned to me and asked, "What happened to you?" I was devastated as he continued on with, "How did you gain all that weight?" Back in the 60's, it had just started to be taboo to have an inch of fat to "pinch." I instantly felt I was less than a person. I felt degraded and ugly. And I may have weighed a whole 110 lbs. Still, I didn't fit into the 5'0" 90 lb. mold of most of my peers. It went on from there with comments from some of my siblings and people at school, and my overall self-worth, which had always been just fine, suddenly plummeted into oblivion. I'd been just as active, my diet had been the same, but with the hormonal changes going on inside my body, it decided to get angry and take it out on me! (About 10 years ago, I found out I had thyroid problems, which had probably been affecting at that time). The more embarrassed I got about my weight, the more I gravitated toward food and overeating. I graduated high school at 160 lbs., already at least 40 lbs. overweight. Then, after two babies, two years apart, I sat firmly at 186 lbs. for several years. A bad marriage ended, and the stressors of trying to raise two small ones on my own made matters even worse. It wasn't long before I was up over 200 lbs. I've not been under 200lbs since - and that was almost 25 years ago. I wish that people who have never experienced the pains of obesity could understand that it is humiliating, embarrassing and frustrating to feel like a little person on the inside, who is screaming for someone to let her out. Obesity is not a sign of weakness. It is not an excuse. It hurts, in more ways than one. None of us enjoys having aching backs, sore feet and legs, or knees that give out when coming down a set of stairs. We are humans with feelings, with emotions. We're smart, we're intelligent, and we have the same wants and needs as everyone else. After hearing that a friend of mine had undergone bariartric surgery, I decided to get online and see what the fuss was all about. And I was hooked! These were my kind of people. They understood. Better yet, the surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists and other team members, actually cared. They love us as we are and want to help. That's when my decision was made. My surgery date for the Gastric Vertical Sleeve is set for May 23, 2012, and I could not be more excited!

What was (is) the worst thing about being overweight?

Not being able to go up a flight of stairs without being out of breath. Second, is having great difficulty sitting in plane seats, that are already designed for people under 98 lbs.!

If you have had weight loss surgery already, what things do you most enjoy doing now that you weren't able to do before?

I have not yet had my surgery.