How important is it to diet before the op ?

Hi Everyone , I am new to this forum and I love it , I am due to get a gastric bypass on the 27th of April and I just cant seem to get my head around the dieting before the op, as I just want to eat everything I see just in case its my last time lol.
I am from Ireland and will be getting the op done in England, can the doc decide not to operate if I dont loose any weight before hand ??,
best wishes to all those who are having their op in the next few days.
Eithne

Hi!  The presurgery diet is important because it shrinks your liver which makes it easier for the doctor to do a laproscopic RNY.  A family member of mine could not stick to the diet, and had the surgery none the less.  The doctor tried hard to make it work as a laproscopic, but in the end, he had to go with an open RNY.  Open RNY's take more time to recuperate from and leave a nice loooong scar on your tummy.  If you were having an open RNY anyhow, you should ask your doctor what the importance is for the presurgery diet.  I can tell you that up until my 2 week presurgery diet started, I enjoyed all of my favorite foods (and then some!).  I'm pretty lucky though, my doctor requires a diet of 1000-1100 calories a day with solid food.  Many folks on here have had to do a two week liquid diet!  That would be really tough!

Best wishes,

Mary

Hello!
The pre-op diet is very important and not to be messed with.  Mine was 3 protien shakes and 1 meal a day.  I had a hard time finding a protein shake that I could drink without gagging.  I was only getting 1/2 to 1 per day and so I thought I could have a little bit bigger meal to make up for the calories.  I only lost 1 pound when I got on the scale this morning for my surgery.  I was all set to go in to the operation room in 5 min., my surgeon came in and said she was canceling it.  She could tell that I didn't stick to the pre-op diet.  I had to have my IV taken out and change back into my clothes and go home.  Now I have to meet with the dietician and counsler again before getting another surgery date.  Not sure how many more months that is, so stick to it!  It's hard, trust me I know!  They will cancel you and let me tell you the feeling of having to go home today was the worst feeling I think I have ever felt in my life!

yaya.sister

I was told by a bariatric surgeon that the very low calorie, pre-op diet, can reduce the size of the liver up to 20%.   So much work has to be done under the liver and inside the rib cage it is physically impossible to lift the liver out of the way without it tearing.  She said in about 10% of the cases when patients don't follow the diet, the surgery can not be completed and the patient is sewn up and the surgery is rescheduled.

That was enough to motivate me to stay on the diet!

Mike

I know it is hard.  My surgeon has his patients do a 2 week protien shake diet so that our liver shrinks and surgery is easier for him and safer for us.  He will and has gone in and found that someone hasn't stuck to the diet and pulled the instruments out without doing the surgery.  I've made it 12 days so far, surgery is Monday April 13.  So it is best if you can diet before surgery, it's aldo very nice to see those pounds off.

Hi. I totally understand what you're going through. The pre-op diet was the hardest thing I ever did. I craved a cheeseburger through the whole thing!!! Like everyone else is saying its important for reducing the size of your liver. However, some things that helped me get through it was realizing what my limitations were and working around them. Set a date to start the diet and plan to have some of your favorite foods in the days before. Its a good idea to start replacing some of your meals in the days leading up to the diet - reduces carb withdrawls. And if you can't manage to stick to you nothing-but-liquids diet, then make smart decisions on what to eat. For me, dinner time was the hardest time of day for me. So I would eat a child sized portion of protein during that time until about 4 days before surgery and then went all liquids. Hope some this helps.
Jen