I have been taking Milk Thistle, liver support, and liver cleanse Vitamins since October. Have been pretty good on my pre-op diet, and finally lost the 5 lbs I have gained. Surgery is on Monday, and as we all know I am worried about it.

Wondering if anyone has actually been opened up and not banded because of their liver?

Any suggestions on what to do with two days to go to avoid this from happening?

I dont know about over there, but I had to sign a consent form saying that if they needed to switch to open surgery rather than laparascopic then I gave my consent.

I would imagine that would be their first line of action.

I only know of one person who had difficulty because of an enlarged liver. He weighed 370 pounds and did not follow the pre-op diet so he never shrunk his liver. The surgery was performed via a lap approach but he ended up with an extra incision and a drain that stayed in for 1 week.

The first thing I asked my doctor was about my liver. He said it looked good and was "not an issue". Yeah!!!

hi poodles,

i have known of 2 people at the hospital where i work who were not banded on the day of their surgery because of an enlarged liver & lack of visual field. the surgeon ended up performing a liver bx instead of the band procedure. 4-6 wks later, these 2 individuals retuned for the lapband procedures. we have not had anyone, in one year of lapband procedures, at our hospital convert to an open procedure. however, the gastric bypass pt's are another entirely different story. for this reason alone, it is very very important to follow a 2-3 wk pre-op liquid diet (if at all possible).

you want your liver shrunck down as much as it can be prior to surgery.

hope this is helpful.

god bless, p.j.