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I had no pre-surgery diet plan to to follow but did have to 'check-in' to the hospital the night before so they actually cut off my food at 8pm that night and then I was only allowed water until midnight. They also had me take a small amount of a sugar free isotonic drink at about 6am on the day of my op (8am), don't know why.

Grrrrr!!!! I don't like the people at your doctor's office!!!!! As a medical assistant (and former front desk person) that just grinds my gears!!! But at least you're in now. You can bypass all of them and talk directly to your doctor now. I'm so glad you got your answers and feel better. Are you starting to get excited??? I'm excited for you!!!

I am so excited for you. Let us know how it all goes. I am vicariously packing right along with you.

Thank you both for thinking about me. Yes. I did have appointment and no they did not know how to get me onto the portal 🤣 . They told me to call the help line which I did end up doing and they just sent me the invite and I took it from there. The Dr answered all of my questions. Most of the stuff that I was told by the rest of the staff that I questioned I was right to because they were wrong. I’m not gonna stress over it though. I got all my answers now and feel much better about things. He promised that if I need him post op I will be able to get him and I am supposed to be on the pre op diet starting today which I did just in case so I’m good. It says my surgery is at 7:30 in the patient portal but they haven’t called me yet. I’m wondering if that’s correct or they just put everyone in for 7:30 and work it out the day before.

You’re certainly kicking arse sweetie!

I did 2 things preop that helped immensely: 1) this may sound weird but i guessed i’d be in a little pain from the incisions so a couple of days before going into the clinic i move everything i figured i’d need in the first week post up to middle shelves in my kitchen/fridge : cups, scales, protein shakes and powders etc. And thank god i did because i had abdominal muscle pain (like i’d done 10000 crunches) and was told not to bend down for a while. 2) i wrote out « meal » plans from what my dietician provided in order to clearly see what time of day i’d eat (protein shakes) and drink (water). I’m the kind of person who needs a set plan that’s clear and that i can follow because i was lost the first few days. I wrote out 4 weeks of meal plans and i varied the shakes and purées and soups so i didn’t get sick of one specific one (never ate the same one 2 meals in a row and alternated with the next day). Not sure it actually helped my experience but it did help me see clearly mentally 🤣

Oh my I am so sorry this is happening to you. I had at least 6 months of this, day in, day out. They tested me for a stricture but found my stitch line was swollen and inflamed and although I could swallow liquids slowly, solids were difficult. Now I still take Lansoprazole twice a day and antacid when I need it. It sucks to be the 1% that has difficulties. I found that artificial sugars, some protein substitutes, rich meats and iron in the vitamins were not for me. I didn't reach my liquid or protein goals but my team were sympathetic and monitored me. I was told to focus on drinking. I tried to eat 6 - 8 tiny meals a day. Every time I had a day of vomiting I would go back a step to liquids. I had a lot of thin soups, tiny slivers of cheese and milk. I tried to eat as clean as I could which wasn't hard with the tiny little amounts of food I could eat. I am occasionally sick now but its because I overeat, forget not to eat grape skins or eat too fast. Now I just give my stomach a days rest and continue. I am used to the feeling of pre vomit and I will usually deal with it. For some reason a popsicle sometimes works

I'm so glad this came up. There's one reference to caffeine in my prep book, but the doctor and dietician have said nothing else about it. And I wrote coffee on my diet plans, but nothing about decaf. I'm going to ask them about it, but I'm now realizing that I will have to cut out caffeine. I'll have to start a weaning process. This might be the toughest pre-op process for me.

I supposed the OP has already worked this out since the post was 2015 but I just want to add that the surgeons do then to weight loss drugs as one of the tools in their belts post surgery now. They have quite a few in addition to phentermine nowadays too. For anyone out there experiencing weight gain please touch base with your team. I was unable to take the meds because if interactions with other meds I was on but that was definitely an option that was presented to me early on and for someone with only a fair amount of weight to lose it could help. I have taken phentermine in the past and it did reduce my appetite significantly. My problem is I wake up several times and night and eat too so once the med wore off I was hungry. For those reasons they didn’t work for me but they do work for many people.

It is strange how we feel the need to explain, when really we owe them nothing at all! Thank you for the advice! x