Hi, I'm new here. Tomorrow I start my liquid diet. I'm only allowed 2 cups veggies and must drink 7-9 high Protein ensures. I'm also allowed Clear liquids. Has anyone done this? I'm terrified. I realize I'm probably going to detox from surgery, milk, carbs etc. just looking for any strategies. I do have advice from the dietitians, but as they have never had to do this, they simply look at it from the clinical point of view.

On 3/22/2017 at 6:02 PM, CalgaryWoman said:

Dr Gill is my surgeon too! And Dr Scott

is there anything else you are eating? Or a diet plan you follow? String cheese, broth glucerna and meatballs? I've been allowed 2 c veggies

I'm mainly sticking to:

- 2 cheese strings a day (any will do if they have 0-2g of carbs)

- 5 chicken nuggets a day (16g carbs) dabbed with a tbsp of bbq sauce (5g)

- wife making homemade meatballs entirely with ground beef, egg, substituting bread crumbs for almond meal (0-5g carbs for 5 meatballs, I believe the ones I buy are Black Diamond)

- drinking probably 1/4 cup of Apple juice with my medications twice a day, one random cup of 2% milk (not that % matters for anything other than fat, all has decent amt of carbs) every few days for Calcium

If the diet suggests 1400 cals, go with 1000.. Ensure likely has well over 100g of carbs too so staying well under 50 a day combined with lower cal intake (not too low) will dramatically help shrink liver and dump pre-op weight, take a decent MV (womens prenatal, Jamieson MV) that includes separate VitD, Calcium Citrate (not many options in Canada but there's a minty chewable from Jamieson at Walmart), sticking with chewable/liquid theme rather than large tablets or capsules.

Key is sticking to low cal, low carb diet, very small portions, separated out well, not clumped together. Clearly AHS doesn't believe we can do this, thus sticks us on the stupid liquid shakes.

Also remember it depends on your body as to how much you lose. In my case my excess weight was almost 200 pounds. That, I feel, is the overwhelming reason I've been losing weight so quickly on this diet.

Edited March 25, 20179 yr by PatientEleventyBillion

On 3/22/2017 at 9:55 PM, 1poundatatime said:

The diet you Calgary folks were put on is insane.

Well done Eleventybillion on your weight loss and more importantly your health improvements!!

I think the premise of all our pre-op diets are the same, lose weight to decrease surgical risk, shrink the liver, and start adjusting to a limited diet in preparation for post-op.

I find it amazing how many different pre-op diet plans there are out there. As soon as I booked my surgery (I'm Canadian but opted for self-pay in Mexico), I was to start on a high Protein, low carb diet, then 2 weeks ahead of surgery was 3-4 protein shakes/day, low cal beverages, and unlimited vegetables.

CalgaryWoman, if I were you, I would sub out the Ensure for some quality Protein shakes, eat unlimited vegetables, and maybe do a lean protein and veg for 1 meal a day. You would be maintaining the principles of the diet and as long as you are seeing good results...

Agreed.

When talking about this to my wife and saying I'll raise a stink post-op about this stupid diet (as only Americans can do) she said there would likely be more negative impacts than positive, so my wife is encouraging me not to cause any ripples suggesting to change this diet up.

I went into my appt with my dietitian on Thursday being extremely quick and to the point. She recognized that wasn't my personality and kept asking me if anything was wrong. I told her "I'll tell you in my appointment with you post-op". It was clear she was flustered from then on out. I normally don't mess with people like that but that's what she gets for threatening to derail my surgery being an idiot. My surgeon won't stop any surgery with me dumping weight like this combined with fantastic liver function/fibroscan/blood sugar improvements. She stands no chance. By the time my OR date of April 20th comes around I'll likely be down 70-80 pounds instead of the 30 they wanted.

Edited March 25, 20179 yr by PatientEleventyBillion

On 3/22/2017 at 6:02 PM, CalgaryWoman said:

Dr Gill is my surgeon too! And Dr Scott

is there anything else you are eating? Or a diet plan you follow? String cheese, broth glucerna and meatballs? I've been allowed 2 c veggies

Oh right. Dr. Ian Scott is an internist. He is a fantastic one as well. I saw him after I got approval from case manager+psychologist+dietitian, and right before I saw Dr. Gil. I even asked Dr. Scott to be our family doctor but because of his practice he couldn't. The guy is very aggressive at treating any other complications you have. For me, it was fractures in my L5/S1 vertebra. My ex-family doctor wouldn't do f**k all about my severe back pain, Dr. Scott took a very aggressive approach and I've been getting facet joint injections into my spine every 3 months (after X-rays and MRI), with a pre-assessment to getting the nerve ablation done which lasts much longer. Before him I had trouble doing more than 1000 steps a day due to immense back pain (like bring-you-to-your-knees back pain), and because of his treatment I now average between 3000-9000 steps a day. It's always fantastic to find the doctors/physicians/specialists who are as aggressive at getting you back on your feet as you want to be. Likewise we found a family doctor (when we moved from (NW/NE to SW) down the street from his home office who is extremely good too.

That fantastic you found a Dr to listen to your concerns. I too will be voicing my concerns about the dietician after my surgery. I have the added benefit of working for AHS so will speak to the manager or director after and explain my concerns and how this dietician doesn't follow our "values". I have decided to change my diet somewhat. I was on 7-9 ensure which is 1500-2000 cal. I have decided to add a little real protein and veggies. I don't think that will mess with improving my liver and I'm happier. E.g. Last night I had 3oz of chicken and 1 1/2 cup asparagus. This morning I had an egg with about 1/2 c mixed veg. I still had my coffee with ensure and will have ensure for lunch. Then for dinner, turkey and veggie. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

54 minutes ago, CalgaryWoman said:

That fantastic you found a Dr to listen to your concerns. I too will be voicing my concerns about the dietician after my surgery. I have the added benefit of working for AHS so will speak to the manager or director after and explain my concerns and how this dietician doesn't follow our "values". I have decided to change my diet somewhat. I was on 7-9 ensure which is 1500-2000 cal. I have decided to add a little real Protein and veggies. I don't think that will mess with improving my liver and I'm happier. E.g. Last night I had 3oz of chicken and 1 1/2 cup asparagus. This morning I had an egg with about 1/2 c mixed veg. I still had my coffee with ensure and will have ensure for lunch. Then for dinner, turkey and veggie. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Question, is the initials of the dietitian in question "SC"? I wouldn't be surprised if this problem is systemic rather than with one megalomaniac. It would certainly be a good use of working at AHS to try and change things because I can't see how Ensure and Glucerna aren't counterproductive to the stated goal.

Sounds like a fine diet.. I would make sure you're on 2-3k IU VitD in total, supplement what you don't take in with food. Make sure cal intake is lower than 1500-2000.. you'd likely be better off with closer to 1000.

For now I take Jamieson Multi 100% complete chewable (has some fruits on the bottom right), available pretty much everywhere, and Jamieson chewable C+D cherry chewable tablets. I take iron with the MV and calcium citrate separately 3 times spread out through the day. They should give you a workup shortly before your surgery to have your vitamin levels checked out. When we take our next trip to the US I'll find myself having shipped to Kinek a bunch of iron and calcium chewable supplements from Bariatric Advantage. The shipping and customs are ridiculous (an extra 90 dollars on top of the initial shipping and exchange rate) but there's so few options in Canada it's sad.

Sometimes I also get chicken nuggets from MLF.. the Janes ones have too many added carbs (probably the breadcrumbs). When looking at the carb amount on Wendys burgers or McDonalds McDoubles it's not so bad either. When eating their burgers I make sure there's nothing added at all and I eat the burger without the bun (totally unnecessary amts of carbs). I have some low sodium/cal ketchup at home.. I hate pretty much all condiments anyways.

Edited March 26, 20179 yr by PatientEleventyBillion

I am really glad you two have each other for support !!

Any progress updates? I know you're less than a month from surgery.. hows the pre-op diet?

On 5/22/2017 at 8:51 PM, PatientEleventyBillion said:

Any progress updates? I know you're less than a month from surgery.. hows the pre-op diet?

So my blood sugars rocketed and I ended up in urgent care with a blood sugar of 35. Then about a week later ended up with huge issues with my eyes due to the high blood sugar. I lost my ability to see anything close, everything was extremely blurry . Have been working with the "team" and thankfully everything is getting better. Very frustrating for sure thought. However I've been put on a diet with real food. Admittedly I've cheated some...and gained back 10lbs which really upset me...but I'm getting there. Still a go for Jul 30th. So that is exciting.

How are you? How was surgery? How was Dr. gill? Were you happy?

Edited May 26, 20179 yr by CalgaryWoman

4 minutes ago, CalgaryWoman said:

So my blood sugars rocketed and I ended up in urgent care with a blood sugar of 35. Then about a week later ended up with huge issues with my eyes due to the high blood sugar. I lost my ability to see anything close, everything was extremely blurry . Have been working with the "team" and thankfully everything is getting better. Very frustrating for sure thought. However I've been put on a diet with real food. Admittedly I've cheated some...and gained back 10lbs which really upset me...but I'm getting there. Still a go for Jul 30th. So that is exciting.

How are you? How was surgery? How was Dr. gill? Were you happy?

I was happy. Dr. Gill was awesome.

I'm quite shocked at what happened to you. Your blood sugars skyrocketed under the liquid diet? Who is your RD (at RRDTC?) if you mind me asking?

Diabetes definitely affects the vision which is why they kept doing tests on me being type 2.. but I actually had vision improvement, so I try and make sense of that. Of course my sugars were 3-month/hba1c of peak 7.9 (now 5.7 with a 3 month coming up next week).

I was on a diet with real food.. as in, almonds, burgers (no buns/condiments besides dabs of ketchup), string cheese, chicken, etc. the whole time, and when I confronted my RD like two days ago about not being able to talk to her because she was freaking out on me during pre-op stage she flipped out again and left the room, which I found hilariously ironic, so I had a chat with the WM director about her issues.

Post-op I'm back on solid foods.. the restriction is real. I had a mild stall in the 260s but losing again so alles ist gut. I can eat only 3 nuggets before I'm full, any more and my stomach hurts, I get that overdose of parasympathetic nervous system, get really tired, and so on.

Please update us on your pre-op if you can, I'd like to see how you're progressing, and lemme know who your RRDTC people are, if that's who you go through. My initial CM was Nikki, RD was Stephanie.. Nikki moved, I was stuck with Carolyn who I hate, Stephanie became a control freak who flips out on people, so I switched and now I have Hallveig and Amanda.

My diabetic nurse is Nareen (I think)

dietician is Amanda. She's been great after my blood surgeon thing but wasn't before.

RN was Nikki too and I'm with Stephanie now I think.

My sugars are around 8-9 now and I'm learning how to test them.

everyone is also following my "eyes" so to speak quite closely. Thankfully I work with EMS so I'm covered ...lol...

Edited May 26, 20179 yr by CalgaryWoman

Nice. Do they have you on a glucose meter? I don't know how bad 8-9 is... they don't have you on insulin? Just normal meds like metformin/forxiga?

No insulin, apparently it can cause weight gain so I'm on quite a mix of meds. Have gained weight though so worried though.