Pre-op diet question. Please help!

[Dorothy_Correz 17]

Talk to your doctor and see if he can change your diet. You need to mentally prepare yourself. After surgery your life will change forever. It is not going to be easy. All of the good stuff you are used to eating is not going to be an option. If you eat something after surgery you are not suppose to it could make you very very very sick.

Edited July 21, 2018 by Dorothy_Correz

[insta_adventurer 1,046]

On 07/20/2018 at 08:27, Kella112 said:

I have to do 4 weeks of pre-op. I had to buy the food from my surgeons office. It is DISGUSTING! It’s literally packets of food and you add Water to them.



Listen I can do any diet for the most part bc I’ve done them before.. but this watered down nasty food is making feel starved, angry and emotional.... this is only day 2.



I don’t want to hear that I’m mentally not ready for surgery bc I am. But I’ve heard of other people having different diets.



Is anyone allowed to have premiere Protein Shakes??? What other diets do your doctors have you on to shrink your liver???

So to specifically answer your question, my pre-op Diet was two weeks long and consisted of two premiere Protein Shakes a day and a light dinner of lean meat and non-starchy veggies. I’m not sure if I was supposed to, but I did add in sugar free popsicles and sugar free Jello to help take the edge off...

I can’t imagine how gross those meals must be! But unfortunately, every program seems to have their own process or diet for folks to follow and I remember being super jealous of the people who did programs that didn’t require the preop diet.

[BurBur 113]

My surgeon required 2 weeks pre op diet with the last three days being clear liquid only. I do suspect that some doctors just want you to eat their food because it might be easier than letting you try to fumble through select choices on your own. The goal for me was high Protein, no sugar with calorie and quantity restrictions. I had a list of foods including serving size to help me make my eating choices and Premier Protein drinks was a daily part of the eating schedule. I cannot imagine having yucky food packets to eat, but as others have said, don't risk the postponement of your surgery and DO talk to the nutritionist. Maybe you just might have some liberties after all :). You do want that liver to shrink, two weeks or four weeks might be a call your doctor makes depending on how much pre weight you've lost already, or it may just be their programs requirement. I do know my doctor said that if he got into me and found my liver too big to work around, then he would have to close me up and try again after more dieting. I was so terrified that would happen I ate perfectly just as they wanted lol.

On a side note, I'm so very glad I'm in the program I'm in. My insurance didn't even require supervised dieting for a length of time before surgery, but my surgeon required an aggressive reduction in my bmi and adequate education and demonstration that I could eat in a way that would make the transitions after surgery easier on my body physically and mentally. I was 5 1/2 months preparing for surgery and all of that time was considered "pre-op" diet. The last two weeks was simply a little more restrictive, but it was still including the same kinds of foods I'd been eating from the start save the last three days of clear liquid, which admittedly was the hardest part. Having read many many posts on these forums about the head trips people go through after surgery with the new restrictive portions and limited varieties of foods tolerated, I can honestly say my surgeon was really looking out for me by insisting on delaying surgery and making HUGE eating changes in advance. I didn't go through all the mental anguish of food lose and addiction issues after my surgery. It was very tolerable in that respect. I would NOT like having to eat packets of food as you are and for as long as you must especially when that will not be your diet post surgery I'm sure.

I am so long winded when I post! Sorry for that. Consider this a supportive commiseration! How wonderful that you are so close to your date. I'm excited for you! Try to be patient with your doctors' diet requests. Its really such a short time to comply over the grand scheme of things. You will be so happy as time goes on.

[Porthous 14]

My pre op diet is 10 days of Clear Liquids only No shakes no food

It starts tomorrow. look out Jello and Popsicle here I come LOL

[BadWolf523 197]

On 7/20/2018 at 8:27 AM, Kella112 said:

I have to do 4 weeks of pre-op. I had to buy the food from my surgeons office. It is DISGUSTING! It’s literally packets of food and you add Water to them.

Listen I can do any diet for the most part bc I’ve done them before.. but this watered down nasty food is making feel starved, angry and emotional.... this is only day 2.

I don’t want to hear that I’m mentally not ready for surgery bc I am. But I’ve heard of other people having different diets.

Is anyone allowed to have premiere Protein Shakes??? What other diets do your doctors have you on to shrink your liver???

I’m doing 5 shakes per day. And if I’m still hungry I’ll do chicken broth. My doctor said not to do premiere because it has too much Protein. I’m using the slim fast in the purple bottle. It has 20g of protein. I’m in Day 3. It is really hard.

[Chunkysoup 75]

2 hours ago, Porthous said:

My pre op diet is 10 days of Clear Liquids only No shakes no food

It starts tomorrow. look out Jello and Popsicle here I come LOL

Oh my goodness that is extreme! May the force be with you! I only had to do clear liquids one day (the weeks prior was Protein shakes) and it was hard on me.

[Frustr8 7,886]

You girls are taking Vitamins withp

[Frustr8 7,886]

these calorie poor diets aren't you? Scary what we go through prior to surgery, isn't it? We will all. sing and dance in the sunlight if we don't collapse first!😛🌴😛

[BadWolf523 197]

20 minutes ago, Frustr8 said:

these calorie poor diets aren't you? Scary what we go through prior to surgery, isn't it? We will all. sing and dance in the sunlight if we don't collapse first!😛🌴😛

Yes a Multivitamin and D2.

[Frustr8 7,886]

Hey Bari-buds I have a question. I've been scrolling around the different listings trying to find a place for this question. Maybe somebody out me in a Stupid shaker. When I start on my diet with 4 high Protein Shakes , 1 snack of fruit ,unlimited non-starchy vegetables and 1 frozen below 300 calorie entree dinner, am I going to be prone to Constipation or diarrhea or softly formed stool? I do have Miralax, MoM and Benefiber in reserve, am I going to need them? And I think,I have some Kaopectate too. Can anybody testify,to,HOW it was for THEM? 💩👈😙👉

[bobt1 29]

Here's my take and experience on the pre-op diet. The doctor wanted to see a 15-25 pound loss before surgery to shrink the liver. So he required a 1600 calorie high protein/modified carbohydrate diet, the same diet he asks all his patients to undertake. I started at 326 and by surgery date I was at 301. No special diet immediately before surgery except for a couple days of liquid diet to clean me out.

Since I was 69 and on medicare I was required to have 4 visits with a nutritionist to get approval for surgery. So over the four months for these visits I followed the requested diet and lost the weight my surgeon requested. The nutritionist was certainly helpful but one could probably do it without that assistance if you are properly motivated.

Having said that. I am attaching the diet plan and a couple items I typed up to make it easier to follow. Also tracked my intakes to ensure I was on target.

High Protein Modified Carbohydrate Meal Plan.PDF

Diet HP MC food categories.docx

Diet HIGH PROTEIN modified carb.docx

[insta_adventurer 1,046]

On 07/22/2018 at 13:51, Frustr8 said:

Hey Bari-buds I have a question. I've been scrolling around the different listings trying to find a place for this question. Maybe somebody out me in a Stupid shaker. When I start on my diet with 4 high Protein Shakes , 1 snack of fruit ,unlimited non-starchy vegetables and 1 frozen below 300 calorie entree dinner, am I going to be prone to Constipation or diarrhea or softly formed stool? I do have Miralax, MoM and Benefiber in reserve, am I going to need them? And I think,I have some Kaopectate too. Can anybody testify,to,HOW it was for THEM? 💩👈😙👉

The high Protein pre op and post op diets left me constipated (never had an issue prior). I’ve picked up some Smooth Move tea and that seems to really help move things.

[fluffy562 110]

I guess every surgeon is different when it comes to pre-op diets. My surgeon only recommends liquid diet the day before surgery. I'm going to ask him when I go to my pre-0p appointment why that is?