I had this awful dream that my liver did not shrink and could not have surgery why am I having these horrible thoughts I've had my two shakes and one meal a day my meal has mostly consisted of salmon and veggies of some sort and I am down 14.5 pounds because of it so why would I even have this dream ??? Is my nerves getting the best of me ??? Geesh I need this anxiety to go away

When's your surgery?

If you've lost 14pounds so far you're doing great!! Your surgeon will be proud, make sure to really hustle before your surgery date. Your surgery will be safer and easier for your doc!

I try not to look too much into bad dreams, you've just been overthinking it, congrats on your weight loss!

I was told that it is not really about shrinking your liver rather than making it soft so it does not crack when they have to move it out of the way. If you are your Doctor's orders, I am sure you will be fine.

You're doing great! My NUT said they aim for 10-15 lbs (15 being better!) on the pre-op liver shrink diet, so you will be fine! I am sure it is just your nerves. Good job on the 14 lbs!!

When your doctor tells you that if the liver doesn't shrink, it could cause the surgery to be cancelled, it's normal to have fears about that. If you're following your doctor's orders, you will be fine. They've done this with enough people that they know it works. Stick with it and you'll be ready for surgery in no time!

I was told the weight loss was to loose fat off the liver. If the liver was too fatty then he would have to perform the large incision to be able to see the stomach better. Good luck

Ok...I've read ( and my surgeon has explained)that the liver gets in the way when doing this type of surgery and they would like it to be as small as possible to make the procedure as easy as possible. The reality is that they don't know what size your liver was prior to surgery and its more of a scare tactic when they say your surgery could be canceled.

If they asked a person to lose a certain amount of weight and they don't it could be canceled. But I don't remember any tests that scanned to check the size of my liver throughout the process so they have nothing to compare your pre diet and pre-surgery liver to. Just my 2 cents

No, it's not a scare tactic. While they don't know how large your liver was beforehand, you can very much see the difference between a normal and fatty liver in this picture:

http://www.omsj.org/drugs/FattyLiver_files/image003.jpg

In short, if you don't follow the diet, they will know because it will be obvious when they go in for surgery. My doctor explained that a fatty liver is more prone to tearing when they attempt to lift it out of the way to get to your stomach and will cause complications. If there's a risk, they will cancel the surgery to protect you.

I had an abdominal ultrasound as one of my pre-op requirements. I was told it was to see the size of the liver, gallbladder for stones and kidneys.

I have my surgery on the 25th and started my pre-op liquid today. So far so good. Not saying that I didn't want the pork chops and rice I cooked for my family today, but I just stayed in the family room while they ate.

Day 1 down - 13 to go!

Ok...I've read ( and my surgeon has explained)that the liver gets in the way when doing this type of surgery and they would like it to be as small as possible to make the procedure as easy as possible.

Yes, the liver lies on top of the stomach and they need to use retractors to move it out of the way to perform the sleeve.

The reality is that they don't know what size your liver was prior to surgery and its more of a scare tactic when they say your surgery could be canceled.

No, it's not a scare tactic. If the liver is too large and at risk of damage during retraction then the surgeon can either change a laproscopic procedure to an open procedure (which you DON'T want) or cancel the surgery entirely.

It is absolutely 100% in your best interest to follow the low carb diet you're given before surgery to increase the probability of a positive outcome.

I am finishing up my required appointments this week so I started my preop diet 2 weeks ago. I just wanted to get ahead of the game and be ready when they say surgery...lol. My diet consist of slim fast twice a day and 500 cal dinner. I have been doing this for 2 weeks and have only lost 3lbs. So worried that I am not going to loose enough to shrink the liver and hv the surgery. This is so frustrating because I gave up sweet tea (completely) and my bowl of cereal at night. You would think by giving that up I would loose 10lbs...lol

Cutting carbs is what you need to do to shrink the liver. My doc set a max of 20 grams a day (good lord that was tough!). You might not lose a ton of weight, but you will lose the fatty deposits in the liver which is what your surgeon is looking for.