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

It has been 9 years since the surgery and I can't remember life before the surgery. The one thing that I know is that I wouldn't be here writing this today if I hadn't had the surgery. Within a year after having it, my doctor confided that he personally felt that I had 2 years, at the most, left to live considering the condition I was in before the surgery. I have a 7 year old granddaughter as well as a 3 year old one and just got a grandson in November. I wouldn't have been able to see any of them if I hadn't had the surgery.

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

The worst thing about not having the surgery is the self preception about who you are and what you have let yourself become. In my case, I have MS and I was doing ACTH steroid treatments twice a year. Each time I cam home after 10 days in the hospital and I had a new burst of energy and felt so much bettter. The downside is I gained 10 or 15 pounds each time I did it. I did it for 8 years. That's 16 times gaining 10 to 15 pounds each time. I felt great and loved seeing the cute nurses, but it was killing me as quickly at the MS was. People think that you are fat because you overeat. The reality is that there is a host of reasons why you are overweigh. Some are mental and some are physical and some oare medical.

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 can eat anything I ate before the surgery. I just don't eat as much and if I eat the wrong thing, my body still reminds me that sometimes sweets is a no no. I've never regrettted it for a second. I was looking through some old pictures the other day. I saw my before pictures and I didn't recognize the person in the picture. I personally believe that there are peole that aren't obese out there that should have the surgery. Getting rid of diabetes is would considering the surgery even for those people that aren't considered obese. Doctors still consider me obese and tell me I need to lose a few pounds. Screw them. They didn't know the before surgery me. Some dotors are too damned smug for their own good.