Hi everybody! I'm new here, just joined up on my lunch break actually, and wanted to introduce myself to the forum. My name is Rick, and my surgery date is scheduled for May 5th. My doctor said I don't need to begin my LRD until the 20th, although I'm now beginning to question whether I should start it sooner (couldn't hurt, right?).

The diet I was given seems to be very restrictive, but even more so to me due to IBS and severe visceral reactions to certain foods, mainly vegetables. I have never been able to stomach vegetables, as far back as I can recall I would vomit just from a vegetable being in my mouth. And this has continued as the years have passed (I'm 35). There are other foods that cause this as well, a lot actually, and this has me really concerned for the LRD.

What I wanted to ask was what can I eat in place of the vegetables that are in the diet? The goal here, according to the surgeon, is to enter ketosis and shrink the liver before surgery. I want to be successful but I'm lost here. Any help would be appreciated, thanks! I will answer any questions or clarifications after work.

Honestly these are questions best answered by your surgical team and dietitian. The presurgical diets vary widely from surgical team to surgical team, so they're in the best position to advise you on when to start it and what to eat.

While as you said, it may not hurt to start early, it also may not really do much either. Keep in mind that the main goal of a liver reduction diet for most patients is to reduce stores of glycogen and water in your liver. 2 weeks is plenty of time to accomplish that.

For larger patients, or patients with a fatty liver, they sometimes have to have an extended pre-surgical diet of 4 weeks plus to try to also reduce the excess fat that has been deposited there. This is really a patient by patient thing based on the surgeon's preferences. I for example, had a 21 day liquid only pre-surgical diet.

When I think about asking the surgical team, specifically the surgeon, it doesn't seem likely that he will budge. As far as the dietician goes, same issue. They tend to see a one-size fits all approach, and example of which is that I do indeed have fatty liver, but it was never mentioned by the surgeon at our most recent appointment nor do I recall the dietician mentioning it.

To be frank I don't think they'd give a crap about my issues with the food either. I did ask the surgeon if I could just avoid the vegetables altogether and he said "no" very brusquely and continued on to another point without giving me a chance to respond. Hence why I'm here asking. I think my hope was someone would have an idea about what to replace it with, perhaps something their dietician recommended or something, so I could just perform the switch and leave it at that without involving the surgeon. The dietician was nice enough but they tend to see any deviation from their recommendation as a sign of failure rather than a request for help.

Sorry to hear your team is not being helpful.

I'm not too sure anyone here would be comfortable telling you what to eat instead of what your surgeon said to eat. If someone here did that, I'm frankly not sure I'd be willing to follow that advice since they're not the one doing your surgery.

It sucks, but you're going to have to be your own advocate and talk to them again to make them understand your issues. I'm sure they hear from patients all the time that say they don't like vegetables, so they may just be thinking you're one of those. In this instance, the're probably just thinking they want you to "man up" and do what your supposed to, even if you don't like it.

In this instance, it sounds like your issues go beyond that, so you're going to have to make sure they know this. Even to the point that you may have to delay your surgery, or find another surgeon.

Best of luck.