I asked myself if I was genuinely happy and realized I had to change if I wanted to be able to do things with my kids, get rid of the pains in my hips and knees, and stop being judged.

I've learned to take the positive and negative, but that still kind of shook me. I'm human. I have moments when I sit back and wonder how doing something that makes me happy can possibly offend other people. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. I don't have time for that.

Everyone says surgery is the easy way out, but going under the knife is never the easy way out. You don't know if you're going to come back out of it and whether there will be complications.

I'll never forget this one time on an airplane when I was told in front of everyone that I had to purchase a second seat because I didn't fit into one. The people nearby who heard it laughed while I cried. It was horrifying.