Well, as you can figure out my name is Alicia.  I have been c/f most of my life.  C/f is a little bit of my language, it means cozy/fluffy, I guess growing up bigger makes you learn to really hate the word FAT.  So I use c/f.  My PCP and I have been talking about WLS for a long time, I actually call it "the carnie".  My aunt had a form of WLS about 35 years ago and after 30 years she developed liver failure.  The doctors never said if the liver failure and WLS were connected, but when it's your family you have blinders on.  Last spring I tried another diet program, one that is all liquid, and during the pretesting, they found that my heart wasn't exactly right.  I couldn't pass a laying down EKG, so I had the stress test and lo and behold, I had excess tissue!  Shocking!  It said I may have had a previous MI as well.  After this, all at the age of 32, my doctor and I looked at each other and said, it's time for bigger intervention.  So thus started the process.  The process started in May and I had my laprascopic roux-en-y done on Wednesay January 16,2008.  Prior to surgery my blood results came back with elevated liver enzymes, so I had a liver ultrasound and then a liver CAT scan done, all of this was sent to my surgeon's practice and surgery was granted indicating that weight loss will make the liver smaller.  Well, while I was knocked out on the table, the surgeon found that the CAT scan wasn't very accurate and my liver was very large, to my belly button in fact.  The surgeon said normally the surgery would never have been approved and that I had the beginnings of NACH which would have ultimately squashed any surgery, ever.  The surgeon did do the surgery since he was in there, with a few alterations on incisions and a liver biopsy thrown in for good measure.  Pretty much, if I didn't have the surgery when I did, my life span would be a lot shorter.  So I am very grateful and pleased to start this new life, however I must say that here I am initially and am very worried and focused on food and caloric intake.  Well that's my story, the long and the short of it!