i'm reading in lots of posts about a "pre op diet". my doc hasn't told me anything about that. my banding date is < 7 days away.

i take it that every doc is different.

am i missing anything?

You could call the office just to make sure, but pre-op diets vary so much....all of the way from total liquids for two weeks to no diet at all.

Good luck with your surgery :wink2:

There is a wide spectrum of different pre-op diets around varying from doctor to doctor as well as depending on the individual patient.

Technically the Lap Band patient booklet from Allergan that goes into some detail listing general guidelines for post-op eating mentions nothing about a pre-op diet. However, the doctor I go to for my fills is a proctor for Allergan. Originally he did not require any pre-op diet but after having to abort surgeries on two patients whose livers were too enlarged to operate around he started requiring pre-op diets of all his patients, ranging anywhere from a couple days to a whole month depending on their BMI and other health factors. Now those 2 patients only represented less than 1% of all those he had banded with no pre-op diet. But he never wanted to have to explain to another patient why they didn't have a band yet when they woke up from the anethesia.

So if your doctor is not requiring a pre-op diet I would suggest you voluntarily go on a two day non-sugar liquid diet strictly for the purpose of reducing the size of your liver. Ofcourse I am NO Doctor or medical professional. So take my advice for what you paid for it. :biggrin2:

I'm on a two week liquid Optifast diet pre-op. There are medical reasons for this... first and foremost is that this diet will shrink my liver and spleen so that it's easier for the doc to access everything during surgery. Also, I've recently been told that a fatty liver is much more fragile. That's one reason that many docs require a pre-op diet.

Another reason is to see if you really can stick to a new way of eating. If you cheat during the two weeks, it's less likely that you'll be able to make the changes needed. Other docs require that the patient lose from 1 to 2 percent of their weight prior - same reasons listed above.

If I were in you're shoes, I'd run right out and get some sort of Meal Replacement drinks and stick to them. Optifast allows 5 drinks a day - actually, that's requires 5 drink a day. You could also do bullion and sugar free Jello. Today is day 5 and I've already lost 10 lbs!!!

Best of luck to you! See you in Band-land! :wink2:

Barbara

i'm reading in lots of posts about a "pre op diet". my doc hasn't told me anything about that. my banding date is < 7 days away.

i take it that every doc is different.

am i missing anything?

I'm on a pre-surgery diet that's pretty easy and pretty filling. The University of Washington requires 1 can of Slim Fast for Breakfast, 1 Lean Cuisine for lunch and 1 Lean Cuisine for dinner. You can have up to 2 cups uncooked or 1 cup cooked veggies, 1 small piece of fruit or a 90-cal yogurt and all the Crystal Light you can drink and sugar-free Jell-O you want.

If you don't like frozen meals, you can do a total of 4 Slim Fast drinks a day.

It's pretty easy and I've lost 15 pounds in under 3 weeks.

There's no way I'm waking up from my surgery to be told my liver was large and in charge and they couldn't do the surgery!

I found that the pre-op diet really helped my head get in the right place. I lost 24 lbs in about 3 weeks and was feeling pretty good both physically and mentally when I went in for surgery. I was banded last Thursday and as of this morning had lost 31lbs.

Good Luck!