Hi everyone!

I'm Jillian--my surgery date is December 23rd!

A few quick questions for everyone:

1.) I have quite a few body piercings. I know policy may vary based on individual hospitals/surgeons, but do people need to typically take out all of their piercings (even ears)? I just want to plan accordingly because of a few of them are implanted under the skin and need to be professionally removed.

2.) I have not been put on a specific pre-op diet. I have been following Weight Watchers for the last few months with very slow, minimal progress. I was thinking the Atkins diet, 3 weeks before surgery, might be the way to go. I understand Atkins is not something I should do long term (or can do after the surgery). However, I want to try to lose the most weight I can before surgery since my surgeon emphasized it's important. I also want to ensure that my liver isn't enlarged for surgery as well. Has anyone else done Atkins before surgery? What are your thoughts?

Thanks everyone :-)

Hi everyone!

I'm Jillian--my surgery date is December 23rd!

A few quick questions for everyone:

1.) I have quite a few body piercings. I know policy may vary based on individual hospitals/surgeons, but do people need to typically take out all of their piercings (even ears)? I just want to plan accordingly because of a few of them are implanted under the skin and need to be professionally removed.

2.) I have not been put on a specific pre-op diet. I have been following Weight Watchers for the last few months with very slow, minimal progress. I was thinking the Atkins diet, 3 weeks before surgery, might be the way to go. I understand Atkins is not something I should do long term (or can do after the surgery). However, I want to try to lose the most weight I can before surgery since my surgeon emphasized it's important. I also want to ensure that my liver isn't enlarged for surgery as well. Has anyone else done Atkins before surgery? What are your thoughts?

Thanks everyone :-)

Congratulations on your surgery date! I can only address the first question. I also have many piercings, most of which I cannot remove. I simply took out the ones that were no problem and told the intake nurse about all the other ones. They put tape on the ones that they could and left the others as-is. The "others" are on body parts that, um, are not routinely visible. I had no problems even though they told me beforehand that ALL piercings have to come out. Everything is negotiable, but be honest with them. If they have a problem during the surgery, they might freak having to deal with a surprise piercing.

Hi Jillian! Congrats on your surgery date How exciting!

As far as the piercings, my surgeon's office had you remove all piercings before surgery (including ears). I think it was actually "remove all jewelry" specifically...but that includes any piercings.

For the preop diet, I think that's also a question for your surgeon. Do you know for sure that he doesn't have a preop diet? If not, I would call and ask. If it turns out that he does have a preop diet, he'll tell you what it is (and then follow that). If not, you should check out other peoples' preop diets that have been posted here to get an idea of what others did (if you want to do one). For me, it was all liquids: 3 slimfast shakes a day, clear broth, sugar free fat free pudding, etc. I kept it under 800 calories a day. I didn't have any solid food...I know some people do shakes during the day and then a high Protein, low carb, low fat sensible dinner at night (like a piece of grilled chicken or something).