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

As many on this site, I had tried everything to lose and maintain my weight over and over again.

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

I am treated as though invisible and I am treated like I am unintelligent. I had a great job as a Project Manager at a well-known hospital in their IT department and believed it was leading to a great career until my manager kept taking my work and trashing it, making me start over. I have 20 years experience in IT, over ten in Project Management, a PMP certification as well as a Master's degree in Computer Information Systems from the Engineering School at Florida Tech. Yet, he would not accept any of my work as completed and often talking to me as though I were new to the field. It all came to an "aha moment" when I completed yet another analysis using pivot tables in MS Excel and he asked me if my husband helped me with it. I realized other managers and co-workers also treated me as though I was not experienced or educated in my field. Often my opinions were overlooked or attributed to others. I was even called "dense", operating at a beginner level, etc. though most of my work was used at all levels of an organization to completely document highly complex technical projects and I implemented numerous software projects within schedule and budget.

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 still yet to lose much since I had surgery last week, but already, I have hope that I can find another satisfying job and not be discriminated against. I also have hope that I will be able to do the things I want, such as travel more and visit more amusement parks and historical parks.