Hey Everyone!

Ive had a few things come up since my last appointment with the surgeon.

This was all through my GP. Turns out my iron levels are now all of a sudden super high(ferritin was 417), and my liver enzymes also high but thats been an ongoing issue for me. I rarely eat meat and have never had high iron in the past so i have no idea whats happened there.

What im now concerned about is my liver! My surgeon does a standard 2 week pre op before surgery to help shrink the liver but im so scared it wont work! My GP sent me for an ultrasound of my liver and it shows moderate fatty liver disease. Ive been reading ways to shrink my liver now before my next surgeons appointment but all the results i get are what im already doing. Ive always eaten fairly well and even lately ive cut back heaps on the junk and comfort eating knowing i have the surgery coming up yet this has still happened!

So fearful that itll get to the big day, they will open me up and then not operate because its too large still? what happens if the pre op diet just doesnt work? Im almost tempted to just start my pre op diet now! I dont even have my surgery date yet!

13 minutes ago, PCOS_Mama94 said:

Hey Everyone!

Ive had a few things come up since my last appointment with the surgeon.

This was all through my GP. Turns out my Iron levels are now all of a sudden super high(ferritin was 417), and my liver enzymes also high but thats been an ongoing issue for me. I rarely eat meat and have never had high iron in the past so i have no idea whats happened there.

What im now concerned about is my liver! My surgeon does a standard 2 week pre op before surgery to help shrink the liver but im so scared it wont work! My GP sent me for an ultrasound of my liver and it shows moderate fatty liver disease. Ive been reading ways to shrink my liver now before my next surgeons appointment but all the results i get are what im already doing. Ive always eaten fairly well and even lately ive cut back heaps on the junk and comfort eating knowing i have the surgery coming up yet this has still happened!

So fearful that itll get to the big day, they will open me up and then not operate because its too large still? what happens if the pre op diet just doesnt work? Im almost tempted to just start my pre op diet now! I dont even have my surgery date yet!

I would just follow the surgeon's advice. They will tell you if they want you to do a longer pre-op diet. For now, try to eat low carb and high protein, as that's what you'll have to do after surgery, and anyway, that's how they pre-op diet is (although it's also low fat, but I didn't find that tolerable long term). It will help you lose weight and feel less hungry (at least that's how it worked for me - I lost 50 lbs in the 7 months prior to surgery).

Good luck!

I wouldn’t be too concerned about them not being able to do the surgery, it’s more likely they would just have to convert to an open procedure and you would have a more difficult recovery than to have to delay the procedure entirely. If anything I would ask the dr if they think a longer pre op diet would be necessary. I honestly doubt it because they would have told you to do it already if they felt it was necessary. Honestly most people who are overweight enough to need this surgery have fatty liver (mostly undiagnosed).

I have (maybe had at this point) severe fatty liver disease when I had my surgery (VSG), so I was super worried my liver would be too big or fatty for the surgery to go forward on the day and specifically asked my surgeon about this. She said that they generally only worry about the liver being too big/fatty with patients with BMI in the 60s or higher, which wasn't me. I don't know if that is you or not, but a bit of info. She also said that the pre-op diet, especially the liquid portion, is very effective and can shrink the liver quite a bit in just a few days/weeks.

As for starting the liquid diet early...I wouldn't suggest it. It is pretty tough and if your program is anything like mine, it will be a loooooooooong time before you get to eat food again. Don't give it up too soon. I was on nothing but liquids for 10 days pre-op and more than 15 days post-op--25 days total. I had three periods of psychological difficulty with this--day 2 & 3 pre-op (just hangry and had a headache for more than 24 hours--pissed me off), the day before surgery (just tired of liquids and impatient) and then about 10 days post-op, when I was really, really over the protein shakes and just wanted to eat something--anything.

Good luck!