Help!

[anonmom 95]

For me, the pre-op diet was 100 times harder than anything post op. And I didn't have to do a full liquid diet. I had to do 3-4 Protein shakes a day with one "healthy meal". It was *SO* hard, I didn't think I'd get through the 2 weeks, seriously. Some people say if you can't get through the pre-op without cheating you shouldn't do the surgery. I'm not sure about that. Before the surgery, you have all that stomach tissue flooding your body with hunger hormones and all the things that have driven you to eat for all the years that have gotten you to the place you're at. After the surgery, that tissue is cut out, and those hormones are GONE. I know it doesn't happen this way for everyone, but for me and a lot of people, the hunger drive is just GONE after surgery. For 2 months after surgery I literally had to set a reminder on my phone to eat and drink. Now 4 months out I have days where I get hungry, but most days I still have to remember to eat. So I personally don't think struggling pre-op is an indicator that you can't do it post-op.

Now, that's not to say I advocate cheating. The evidence is unclear about the benefits of the pre-op diet. The surgeons that require one say that it reduces the size of the liver. The liver has to be lifted out of the way for the surgeon to be able to do the laparoscopic surgery. If your liver is too large, they either have to convert to an open surgery (HUGE incision in your belly, MUCH longer recovery, MUCH higher chance of complications) or they have to cancel it and try again after some radical diet changes to reduce the liver. So if those surgeons are right, cheating on the pre-op diet can increase the chances of complications and such with the surgery.

For me, my doc didn't see any evidence of enlarged liver, and said in her experience without evidence of an abnormal liver the pre-op diet just didn't make that much difference, so she didn't have as strict of one. But my medical case is not your medical case, and my doc isn't your doc. It's important to follow your doc's instructions. If you're struggling so hard you just can't, then call your doc's team and see what they advise. I've seen people's stories here that when they called and talked to their team about their struggles, the team said they could add salads or other specific foods that wouldn't compromise the pre-op diet but would help them get through. I think too often people struggle so hard with things the doc says and fail and are too afraid to call the team. That's what they're there for. You won't be the first person to struggle seriously with the pre-op diet. They should have some advice or options or tools to help you.

Good luck, and if nothing else, remember that this is a short period of time, just get through it as best you can, because it DOES GET BETTER.

I agree with all of this.

The way I see it, the pre-op diet has 3 functions: to get you to practice making and consuming liquid sources of Protein, to empty your stomach completely so you don't aspirate, and to shrink the liver.

I knew I wouldn't be able to stick to the pre-op diet, due to the holidays and also a vacation I had planned and paid for before scheduling my sleeve. So I started practicing early. I bought a bunch of different shakes and powders and protein waters about 5 weeks before surgery to see which ones were acceptable and which ones I hated. I went several days in a row with no solid foods and no alcohol, to make sure I could do it. I had also practiced weighing out 2 ounce portions of food and eating tiny bites the month before, so I feel like I've got that down.

I went back onto a sober/full liquids diet on Monday night, and when I wake up tomorrow I will just be on Clear Liquids. When I wake up on Thursday, I will have only Water and sugar-free popsicles until noon, and then check into the hospital and eat nothing else until after surgery. So I'm not worried about having any food in my stomach at the time of surgery.

And I asked my surgeon about the liver thing. She says there is really no way to tell whose liver will be extra fatty and who will have a nice pliable live that is easy to move out of the way.

And, of you think about it, there are people who get this surgery who weigh 300, 400, 500 pounds and even more. Even if those people really do an amazing job on their pre-op diet and lose 50 or 100 pounds, it isn't going to magically shrink their liver smaller than mine. I weigh in the low 200s and my doctor also told me she wanted me to lose 10 pounds, but it hasn't really happened. I weigh maybe 1 or 2 pounds less than I did at my first consult, and I'm fine with that. I just want to get the surgery done with and get those damn hunger hormones out of my body so that I can do the post-op diet progression correctly. That's where you can really get yourself in trouble, eating things you shouldn't while you're healing.

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