I have my pre-op tests on April 3 and the surgery is scheduled for April 4, if all goes well with the tests. I keep reading about people's pre-op diets and everything and I wonder why it's so different here. My doctor wants me to be on liquids for two days before surgery, but he didn't put me on any other kind of diet. I think I might go on liquids for 5 days or so before the surgery. I'm a little worried that things won't go well. Hopefully this guy knows what he's doing.

I'm starting to get a bit nervous, mostly about hair loss, though. That and I'm alone here and don't have anyone to go to the hospital with me or help me while I'm recovering. My family is in the US. Well, we'll see!

As far as I can guess (and I'm only guessing) the preop diets are different because of different surgeons and different patients. I weighed 405 before my surgery and apparently because of information provided by my tests I needed a longer preop diet to shrink my liver. Not all people have thicker larger livers. One thing I've learned is that info on here is nice but you can't really compare us; we may be alike in that many of us have (or are interested in) a gastric band to control obesity, but that's where the similarities stop. Each surgeon is different, each experience is different, each patient is different. There are some fairly hard and fast rules (like not eating post op because you can dislodge the band and cause trouble) but mostly we just have to do what our doctors tell us and trust that they are the "pros".

As to hair loss, my doc said most all of his patients loose hair at about 3-6 months post op, extra Protein and/or supplements don't seem to impact it, and that no one ever needed a wig or toupee, and that it stops and the hair grows back.

I lost hair exactly as he said..from month 3 to month 5, and am fine, and even my hairdresser said it never thinned.