Hi all, im on day 2 of this two week diet before surgery and im dying with protein shakes, jello, water. Im taking broth as well. Does anyone have any more suggestions please?

Distract yourself with everything you can. The pre-surgery diet is universally the hardest bit, and everyone just has to soldier through it. The first week is the worst, as it's pure cold-turkey and that means withdrawals from carbs and sugar which are rough. Ask your team if you can at least eat vegetables for some texture? If not, find any distractions, whether it's walking, reading, playing games, doing some DIY.

It feels like forever when you start it, but the time does go. By week two, my looming surgery brought pre-op nerves that helped distract me from the starvation diet.

It's like getting tortured isn't it. Just struggle through. By day four you will have it easier. Everyone is set a different diet so we can't really advise you on what you could eat. Sugar free ice pops should be fine though.

The reason they do the diet is to -

1. Make us realise how much and how badly we ate. It helps break the sugar and junk food cycle.

2. To shrink our livers so the surgery is safe. A fatty liver is very fragile, they have to move it to get at the surgery site. A few people have had the surgery begin and woke to find the surgeon said, 'sorry can't do this today' They were heartbroken.

Stick with it, it's worth it in the end. We are all living proof its possible. Mine was 3 long torturous weeks and I was so sick of it that I almost ran to the operating theatre shouting ' let's get this done'