Hi - I'm still new here but I'm reading so much about others starting their pre-op liquid diets. My surgeon told me he doesn't do that -- just be careful the few days before and don't go crazy or it will make you feel worse afterwards which I've been following (my surgery is next Thursday, 12/7). I've also met others that have not had the pre-op liquid diet in person so that makes me feel better...but I haven't met anyone who isn't doing some sort of elimination drink the day or night before surgery?

Anyone else out there who is not doing a pre-op liquid phase? Or an "elimination" drink the day before? Just wondering how uncommon this is..thanks in advance for sharing.

The elimination drink is to make sure your stomach and intestines are empty for the surgery. It seems having bits of food in your stomach would affect your staple inline, and same for your intestines if you have a RNY. Also, with a RNY, your stomach remnant is essentially blocked off forever — you wouldn’t want there to be any food in there as it gets blocked off.

I would double check to see how long your surgeon wants you to fast before surgery.

I only have to do one day of clear liquids with magnesium citrate at noon the day before surgery. I am getting the gastric bypass.

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My doctor had me on one week of 2 shakes a day, one light meal. My surgery was the week after Thanksgiving, and he gave me permission to have a 'regular' Thanksgiving meal. No elimination drink the night before, and no liquid diet (no solids after 8pm, nothing to eat/drink after midnight. In recovery, he told me my surgery was a breeze.

I don't have to take any elimination product. No clean out procedure.

My office does two weeks of liquid diet and on the last night before surgery, you carb load with about 30 ounces of white grape juice. I have a feeling the grape juice makes things move if they need to. LOL:)

I had no pre-op diet of any sort. He said he only makes people that are over 300lbs do that because of the size of their liver (well I was only 7lbs away from that weight so I don't know why he didn't make me do it). None the less all went great

Thanks for the info everyone...good to see I'm not the only one who doesn't need to do much pre-op and I may steal the white grape juice idea the day before lol...

My issue now is I just realized when the woman told me to go for blood work a couple weeks ago, she put an EKG appt on there for the same day in a different building..I had told her I could squeeze the blood work in before an appt I had later that morning so I never even looked at the paper that said I needed an EKG done that day. My surgery is supposed to be Thursday - I'm hoping I can call and get one scheduled and get over there tomorrow and it will be done in time. I hope since results are immediate for that it will be okay...I see others mention getting an endoscopy but I didn't need one of those I guess or another case of everyone's surgeon being different...

I have a sinking feeling my surgery is going to be pushed

Hi Jeannie, you should be able to get your EKG done in time. The only issue would be if it had irregularities that might require a stress test or more testing...,, that could get problematic. Get on that first thing in the morning! My EKG was done at my regular doctor's office.

I would suggest calling your bariatric group and letting them know you still need your EKG and seeing if they can call whatever test facility will get you in ASAP. Going through regular scheduling yourself might not get the results that a call from a doctor's office would.

The endoscopy would come into play only if you flunked your upper GI barium X-ray (at my clinic, anway). If you had normal results from your upper GI (if you had to do one)...you likely won't need an endoscopy.

I do not have to follow a liquid diet or do any elimination drink prior to surgery. The other surgeon in the practice requires a laxative before but my surgeon does not think it is necessary and adds no benefit. The only requirement i have to follow is only clear liquids after 2pm the day before and no liquids at all after midnight. The office does recommend Miralax after surgery to ease constipation after anesthesia if necessary, so I'll have it on hand. Hope that eases your mind a bit

6 hours ago, Creekimp13 said:

Hi Jeannie, you should be able to get your EKG done in time. The only issue would be if it had irregularities that might require a stress test or more testing...,, that could get problematic. Get on that first thing in the morning! My EKG was done at my regular doctor's office.

I would suggest calling your bariatric group and letting them know you still need your EKG and seeing if they can call whatever test facility will get you in ASAP. Going through regular scheduling yourself might not get the results that a call from a doctor's office would.

The endoscopy would come into play only if you flunked your upper GI barium X-ray (at my clinic, anway). If you had normal results from your upper GI (if you had to do one)...you likely won't need an endoscopy.

hi Creekimp - thank you! that is good advice and i do plan on calling the surgeon early tomorrow morning to see if they can get me scheduled asap. They are part of a grouping of buildings and it was scheduled for an adjacent lab and they had scheduled it that day for the following day so hoping they can get me in on Tuesday and they post the results and I'm good to go. I have always had borderline low blood pressure but since I've gained a bit more in the past couple of years, my BP is normal so I'm hoping all should be ok...

I had an upper GI years ago for some stomach issues but i didn't have one ordered from this surgeon before this surgery..so hopefully all will be okay if i can just get the EKG done.

Good luck on Tuesday - it's awesome how much you've already lost!! please post how you're doing after your surgery!!

4 hours ago, BetterBee said:

I do not have to follow a liquid diet or do any elimination drink prior to surgery. The other surgeon in the practice requires a laxative before but my surgeon does not think it is necessary and adds no benefit. The only requirement i have to follow is only clear liquids after 2pm the day before and no liquids at all after midnight. The office does recommend Miralax after surgery to ease constipation after anesthesia if necessary, so I'll have it on hand. Hope that eases your mind a bit

It does -- thanks Better Bee! Your surgeon and mine seem a bit more in synch...my instructions are just not to have any food or drink after midnight the night before surgery...when is your surgery date?

Monday December 11th... I'm ready for it now though! I think the anticipation might kill me this next week.