I met with my Dietician today. She was unbelievably lovely. She walked me through the pre op diet, and it is so much better than I thought. She calculated that I was aloud to have a small amount of lean protein. When I was shocked at that, she said “not everyone is aloud to have that, but I have calculated that you can”

That made me wonder why I was allowed it but others weren’t. Is it because I am heavier than others, was it my BMI or age or something?

does anyone know?

thanks

I was on protein shakes on my pre-op diet, every doctor is different with what they allow and don't allow. I was allowed a normal diet up to 4 days before my surgery. Most people aren't allowed a regular diet that long but it is what my doctor allows.

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1 minute ago, Megan831 said:

I was on Protein Shakes on my pre-op diet, every doctor is different with what they allow and don't allow. I was allowed a normal diet up to 4 days before my surgery. Most people aren't allowed a regular diet that long but it is what my doctor allows.

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Yeah. It’s interesting that every doctor is different. This was between patients at the same doctor. I’m aloud lean meat in pre op and others arn’t. Maybe because I am doing it for 3 weeks.

It’s not important I guess. I am just happy I know more now and can prepare.

It really is anybody's guess.

The typical rationale for a pre-op diet is to improve the liver condition to make surgery easier, so both the patient and the surgeon come into play here (some patients will have more problematic livers, some surgeons are less comfortable than others in working around them). Some talk in terms of getting the patient used to the post op diet, but by my experience, that isn't needed as you don't feel like having anything overly solid for a while (maybe these are programs that do post op liquid diets much longer than needed?) The liver thing is usually best addressed with a very low carb diet, so lean meats and green veg are usually fine, though that is often restricted to one or maybe two meals a day with the rest being protein shakes or other liquids. Some do a purely liquid diet for some unknown reason, usually two weeks but it can be more (I have seen up to six months - yikes!) Some don't do any pre-op diet at all if they know their way around the liver. We only had a day before diet to clear out the GI tract before surgery.

Overall, it sounds like your diet is relatively average - not overly long or only liquid, but not just a quicky, either. Overall, being on only liquids for as long as some do, combined with post op liquid diets, isn't really that great of an idea, and it is best to minimize that to the extent possible (within doctors' instructions, of course!)

Have fun going through all of this!

There’s a lot of variation in pre-op diets, so it’s hard to say how your surgeon came up with these specific guidelines. To be perfectly honest, I suspect it’s partly superstition. I have heard of it sometimes being based on weight and/or body shape. If your BMI is on the low end (40ish) and/or you carry your weight more in your hips than your belly, you may not need to shrink your liver as much. But really, you just need to trust your surgeon and do what he/she says.

Different doctors have different rules. Some doctors put patients on an all-liquid diet pre-op. My surgeon just had us at calorie and fat restrictions pre-op.