I am scheduled for VGS on June 3rd and have been watching (probably too many) videos about the procedure. It seems like needing to shrink fatty liver is the most important and risk of complications if your liver is too large. I plan to follow the pre-op diet religiously, but was wondering if anyone had the surgery and the doctor said your liver was still a little fatty and yet your surgery went well?

I'm getting scared that, after being fat for so long, two weeks won't be enough to get my liver to a healthy size. I also enjoy a glass of wine almost every night and know that doesn't help either.

Thanks for any feedback.

Edited May 2, 20215 yr by justShell
Grammar

Wasn’t as issue for me. I did a 2 week pre-op diet and had zero issues afterwards. I’m 3 months post op and have been alcohol free for about 4 months. Prior to that I was a heavier drinker on the weekends. Just follow your plan and it should be fine for you

Preop diet will shrink it. Not worth worrying about. The best advice anyone can give, is to just do exactly what your surgery team tells you to do.

Good luck! I'm sure the pre-op diet will be great for your liver. Consult with your doc if you still have questions.

I forget what show I was watching but it was about a guy having the same procedure (he was VERY heavy) and I remember the doctor saying something like, "let's see once inside if he followed my orders and did the pre op diet as I told him?". And once inside he commented again saying like, Oh yeah. His liver looks great. It's amazing what 2 weeks on the liquid diet can do. We (the docs) can definitely tell when you've done as you've been told when it comes to preparing for surgery." I just found that interesting that 1, they could tell if you did it or not, and 2, that it could change so much in such a short period of time. So, I'm sure you'll be fine.

I was not on a 2 week pre-op diet. As per my surgeon, just liquids 24 hrs prior to surgery. I got through no issues, and nothing mentioned about it.

I won't have a liquid diet, just a low fat, low carb diet, but even so, it will shrink the liver. I would agree with everyone who says to follow the advice of your surgery center. The liver is pretty good at healing itself unless there is cirrhosis (scaring) and I don't think a glass of wine every night plus a bad diet would do that unless you've been having a really bad diet for like 30-50 years and then I think they might want to get an MRI of your liver, if it was a possibility. Given that your BMI is only 35, it doesn't sound likely. My BMI was 50 when I started and they didn't think I needed imaging (but I'm only 41).

Thanks everyone. I'm just overthinking things. I'm sure it will be ok.

I was overly paranoid about this as well since my Dr. didn’t do a liquid diet up until the day before surgery. Turns out, my liver was “tiny” in his words and I was paranoid about nothing. I wouldn’t worry about this and just follow your surgeon’s orders for pre op.