I am scheduled for surgery 4/30 and am on the 4th day of my pre-op liquid diet. I am not doing well at all! I have major headaches and I am STARVING! The protein shakes are gross, but I have managed to drink at least 2 a day(my goal is 4). What are some other things I can eat/drink? I am trying to be creative with my "meals". I find myself eating veggies through out the day, but how much is too much?

HELP!!! I need all the support I can get!

I start my pre-op diet tomorrow so I can imagine your pain. I can't even imagine how hard it's going to be. I wish I could give you some advice but since I haven't started yet, I haven't figured out what works for me. As for how much and what you can eat, I think it varries by surgeon. I can only eat fresh veggies for the 1st 3 days of my diet. But for the whole thing I can have soup (with chunks) as long as it's less than 3 grams of fat per serving. Good luck, I'm wishing ou the best.

I don't have a pre-op diet (stop screaming...I have no clue how hard this must be). I have been doing 2 self-imposed protein shakes a day and after trying a bunch I can tell you may favorite is the EAS Advantage Carb Control Chocolate Fudge premade shakes (I buy them at the Target Store in PA). The Atkins ones aren't too bad either. I answered a post about my post-op liquid diet today as it's a liquid diet, hopefully this will give you some liquid ideas. Oh, and please come and join us at the April '09 Bandsters Forum HERE. There's lots of threads you can join as we're all starting this month too. Good luck! -BG

Liquid ideas:

- SF Popsicles

- Broth or any thin (non opaque-not creamy) soup that you can pour through a strainer to take out all the goodies.

- SF Jello

- SF Drinks: Crystal Lite, Propel, or other Splenda drinks, decaf tea, decaf coffee

- skim milk (can add SF chocolate drink mix like SF Carnation instant Breakfast)

The above is all I'm allowed until I go back for my check-up at 2-3 weeks, but my doc is the strictest one I've seen. Most others are allowed the following (and I may add some of these too after a week, otherwise I'll be passing out from only calories from 3 glasses of skim milk a day LOL! They tell me I won't be hungry, but I think I'd be lightheaded on just the above...we'll see.):

- Skim Milk with protein powders or I bought a low sugar Nesquik chocolate one. I also bought a SF decaf Suisse Mocha Mix (General Foods International).

- protein drinks (You're not allowed to make your own smoothies yet until mushie stage)

- Juices (non acid ones): Low sugar, 100% fruit juice (I bought , Diet V8 Splash, and 100% of cranberry, grape, and apple)

- Liquid yogurt drinks (not my fav)

- Some are allowed strained cream base soups (watch out for acids, no tomato, orange juice, etc. until you heal). I made some homemade veggie soups (thanks to voiceomt2002's recipes) and pulverized them in the blender so I could leave some taste in (ie. my cream of mushroom has the tinniest bits of mushrooms still in it-they'd go through the strainer...love that magic bullet. You could do this with canned ones then run them through a strainer.).