Pre-Op Diet, Two weeks out!

[MasonMoonGirl 42]

Two weeks until surgery!!!! I scheduled an appointment with my surgeon to go over ALL of my last minute questions. One of the concerns I had was of my post op diet. My surgeon seems more "liberal" when it comes to the pre op and I am allowed to eat fruit, eggs, bacon, cottage cheese, Protein, vegetables, nuts, cheese etc until two days before surgery. From most of what I've read online it seems like most people go on a liquid diet during this time. I wondered if maybe he thinks patients maybe won't stick to it and that's why he didn't assign it so I made up my own semi liquid diet with the information I gathered which was basically 100% fruit juice Popsicle, sugar free pudding, Gelatin, Soup, Protein Shake and ground beef salad everyday. I wrote down what I was doing and handed it to him and he proceeded to ask me where I got this diet from and straight told me that this diet was crap, Snacks had no nutritional value which would make me weaker before surgery, Popsicle had a bunch of sugar and that my liver would shrink by cutting Carb and starches alone and that i need to eat and stay off the internet 🤣🤣 Did anyone else's surgeon put them on a diet like this pre op? Don't get me wrong I am of course happy to eat food, but I've never heard of anyone else having such a liberal diet pre op and it makes me wonder...

[CarmenG 151]

I think it all depends on your starting weight. It could be because your BMI is low, comparatively speaking. Patients who only have 50-70 lbs to lose usually aren't made to do a 2-week full liquid diet. For some of us, though, our doctors want us to lose weight (not just detox or shrink the liver) before surgery. This is because we have 100+ lbs to lose, and have a fatty liver. My doc wanted me to lose 50 lbs even before the surgery. I told him, "Doc, if I could lose 50 lbs right now, on my own, I wouldn't need you." We haggled and compromised and decided on 30 lbs. I lost exactly 30 lbs before surgery. Obviously, sugar free popsicles and sugar free Jello (the juice should be sugar free as well) aren't nutritious. They are liquids. Anything that is liquid at room temperature is considered a liquid (popsicles and jello). But they should all be sugar free. And it's not something we do for a long time, only right before surgery. A full liquid diet includes Protein shakes. A clear liquid diet does not. I did semi liquid (2 Protein Shakes and one no-carb solid meal for dinner) for 30 days. Then I did 8 days full liquids only, and the 2 days before the surgery Clear Liquids only. It should have been 12 days full and 2 days clear, but they moved my surgery date up because there was a cancellation. Consequently, my 2-week liquid diet became a 10-day liquid diet.

[BigSue 1,321]

Pre-op diets vary widely from one surgeon to the next. Some take a one-size-fits-all approach and require a 2-week liquid diet for everyone just to be safe. Some don’t require any specific diet until the day before surgery. Some dictate pre-op diet based on individual patients. I strongly suggest you follow your surgeon’s directions. Do you trust him to cut you open and rearrange your digestive system? If so, then trust him to give you appropriate pre-op instructions. If you don’t trust his medical judgment, you probably shouldn’t let him do surgery on you.

[DandelionSun 17]

Mine was just 24 hours of liquid prior - but my husband was 2 weeks when he had it done.

in his case, (insulin dependent diabetic), he had to have an endoscopy prior to having a surgery date. He was put on a 3 day liquid diet prior to the endoscopy and it showed he had food in his stomach from 4 days prior to the liquid diet! The doctor said that diabetics don’t digest their food well.

so doing our liquid phase is dependent on our challenges personally and to make sure there is no food in our stomachs as well as shrink the liver.

[catwoman7 10,904]

as someone else said, pre-op diets vary widely. All of the patients at my client, even the "light weights", had the exact same diet - that is, 4-5 Protein Shakes a day, all the no-cal or ultra low-cal fluids we wanted, sugar free Jello, sugar free popsicles, and one cup each of Tomato juice/V8 and chicken broth.

consider yourself lucky. The diets like the ones a lot of us are on are a huge PITA.

[Arabesque 6,531]

Welcome to the wide & varied pre & post surgical plans. 🙂

I was put on a Keto plan before surgery. My surgeon puts different patients on different pre surgical diets. A friend was on the all shake diet & her friend was on the two shakes & one meal version yet we had the same surgeon. I think he does it based on a number of factors: starting weight, pre existing health status, weight loss/gain history, etc. Maybe your surgeon is the same. I wouldn’t be concerned, just enjoy still having a variety of food choices available to you.

All the best with your surgery.

PS - Best to avoid fruit juice too as it has a high sugar content. Natural sugars but still sugar & calories. It takes several pieces of fruit to make a glass of juice but you would sit down & eat the sane number of pieces of fruit in one go. Plus it lacks a lot of the essential nutrients a whole piece of fruit does. When you can introduce fruit into your diet again go for whole fruit not juice.