Reading the many posts by all of you on this forum has been enormously helpful for me in terms of both gaining knowledge and being encouraged.

But, I've noticed that it seems doctors are all over the place in what they allow their patients to eat pre/post op. This is particularly frustrating to me - I get jealous, dang it! Why do I have to be on mushies for 3 weeks after 2 weeks of liquids when some others get to move to real food in their 4th week or earlier? (I also know I have it better then some as well).

So I started wondering:

• Do doctors with stricter diets care more about their patients than doctors with lesser restrictions? Or are the doctors with the stricter diets just more cruel?
  

Personally, I think its just the Nutritionists abusing their power.

My surgeon said this to me when I asked about this...

Those surgeons who insist on a liquid only diet prior to surgery tend to be the ones that are less experienced, or happy banding. My surgeon is one of the top surgeons in the UK and just suggests a 2 week low fat diet prior to banding, and suggests that you eat what you are comforatble with AFTER surgery.

I was finding liquidy stuff post op really hard - I was so hungry - and so I have moved straight onto mushy food after only 3 days - and I have, today, had the best day ever ... I feel full, happy and have relatively little pain or discomfort!

My doc had a month-long pre-op diet of 20 carbs a day. It would ROUGH! However, 6 days after surgery I was on mushies, and 11 days after I was on regular food. I asked my doc the same question... why did some people have virtually no pre-op, and I had to kill myself with 20 carbs a day? Why do some docs keep their patients on mushy food for a month post-op? He told me that it's mainly what they have seen work best for their patients. Right now, no one has put all the data together as to what works for everyone, so every doctor is doing their own trial and error. My doc said that he used to do just a 2 week pre-op diet of liquids only, but it just made patients miserable, and the 20 carbs a day thing gave the same results (shrunk the liver and shed pounds).

My surgeon said this to me when I asked about this...

Those surgeons who insist on a liquid only diet prior to surgery tend to be the ones that are less experienced, or happy banding. My surgeon is one of the top surgeons in the UK and just suggests a 2 week low fat diet prior to banding, and suggests that you eat what you are comforatble with AFTER surgery.

I kinda suspected this might be the case. I also suspect that my doctor gives such strict rules because he suspects many of us will break them (not without reason). For example, I confess, today I had 575 calories instead of the 500 that I'm suppose to. If he said 1000 calories a day, breaking it would mean 1100 or 1200.

My doc had a month-long pre-op diet of 20 carbs a day. It would ROUGH! However, 6 days after surgery I was on mushies, and 11 days after I was on regular food. I asked my doc the same question... why did some people have virtually no pre-op, and I had to kill myself with 20 carbs a day? Why do some docs keep their patients on mushy food for a month post-op? He told me that it's mainly what they have seen work best for their patients. Right now, no one has put all the data together as to what works for everyone, so every doctor is doing their own trial and error. My doc said that he used to do just a 2 week pre-op diet of liquids only, but it just made patients miserable, and the 20 carbs a day thing gave the same results (shrunk the liver and shed pounds).

That's interesting. When I had my pre-op meeting I was asked to sign a form giving permission to be used as part of a research study.

So I suffer today so that others may not have to!

My doctor is very very tight on his pre-op diet because he wants your liver shrunk as much as possible to make your surgery safer.

Post-op he was much easier. He wanted me on liquids for two weeks then mushies for two weeks but his idea of mushies was anything that I could puree.

I do recommend that you follow what your doctors asks of you and that you not find one on here and go with it just out of convenience. Your doctor is going to be working with you for a long time and you want to build trust and confidence between the two of you.

If my doctor tells me I can't do something, I know he is telling me that because he has reason to believe it is for my own good.

If I tell him something, he can trust that I am being honest and not manipulating the system and that there are no surprises down the road for him.

You want that good relationship.