I'm on day four of my pre-op diet and I have so many questions. My first one is do I need to purchase chewable vitamins? Next, should I go out and stock up on popsicles, jello, and shakes? Then finally, while being on the diet has anyone had to deal with bad stomach cramps? I need all the help I can get!

I am in the liquid stage before also but in my second week of it. I did go and buy a bunch of sf Jello, sf popsicles and broth so I didn't need to keep going to the store and looking at food. I also have been having the same problems with my stomach...I think its the food change and my stomach trying to keep everything in the starvation mode. Last night I took a laxative and drank a ton more Water. Today I feel a lot better.... Hope this helps! Good luck with your surgery!

I'm going to try the laxative too, to empty all the toxins from my body!

My clinic put me on a chewable multi vitamin 6 months before I had the surgery. They stopped it a day before and restarted it at the 4 week post op mark.

After surgery your taste buds may change so be careful about buying too much food before hand. This will probably affect your choice of Protein shakes. After surgery from a RNY, I was required to take several different types of Vitamins. The only chewable one that I took was the Flintstones Multivitamin, the rest were in pill form. You might consider buying a pill splitter and a pill crusher. After surgery, you may not be able to swallow some of this medicine unless you crush it or split it first.

I did stock myself on a few items, first being jello because it does give you something to "chew" on days where drinking feels old! I also bought Mrs. grass soups because the broth is approved for both pre and post op diets, and it comforts me when I feel ill or nauseous. I also had plenty of waters and G2 on hand. I honestly did not feel like going into a store for at least five days post op. I did have chewable vitamins at home prior to surgery however I could not ingest any for at least a week post op. I did experience quite a bit of abdominal cramping when I first started on the protein drinks and it did subside after about a week. Good Luck! You've got this!!!

I could not tolerate the SF popsicles after surgery. They were just too sweet for me. Almost the same with SF Jello. In fact I'm almost 5 months post op and have all of the jello that I purchased before surgery still in the refrigerator. I started my chewable Vitamins about 1 week after surgery. I think every program is a bit different in this. I bought the Premier Protein shakes for me pre-op and continued them post-op. I tried other ones and could not tolerate them either. I think the first week after surgery I just had broth, Protein Shakes, and Water.

Everyone is different in what they can and cannot tolerate. I just bought as I went along.

Best of luck...You got this!

As the previous posts indicate (like many threads here) the best advice will come directly from your surgeon's office. For what it's worth, my surgeon instructs us to wait until 1 month post-op to begin taking Calcium, B12, and a multivitamin supplement (at larger than normal quantities) and always in either chewable or sublingual form since they offer the best absorption rate. I didn't stock up on anything in particular because I tend to get bored with food rather quickly. Plus, I found that walking around the grocery store was not only good for me (for the exercise) but being around "bad" food didn't bother me...I just wasn't interested in it.

Thank you for your suggestions, and support!