"I worried recovery would be hard if I had surgery for my obesity," says Pamela, a professional nurse’s aid whose attractive, self-confident smile belies the depression she used to endure. "But in my job I needed to be fit. So when a woman who had the Lap-Band showed me her access port, I wanted to learn more."

With an active five-year-old son to raise and a history of diabetes in her family, Pamela’s weight of 330 lbs was a liability to more than her job. She had wanted to get a college degree, but thought she wouldn’t fit in the classroom desks. "So by the time I saw the ad for Dr. Neil Floch’s seminar, I was ready. There was a snowstorm threatening that night, but I was going anyway. And when I met the other people and the team from St. Vincent’s – well, that was it." At work, she says, "I was given two weeks off for recovery. But I went back to work after only one."

At first the weight dropped slowly. The Bariatric team’s support groups are there to help patients through that. "Then suddenly I was down a pants-size," Pamela recalls. Now, 140 lbs lighter, the depression is gone and she reports that classroom desks are no problem. "I’m getting an associate’s in elementary education," she says. "I even got up and told my St. Vincent’s story in class!"