What would you do?

My surgery is tentatively scheduled for the first week in January.  The surgeon's office called and said that since my insurance does not require me to lose weight preop, they will not either.

From everything I have read, it is better to lose a few pounds preop to get your body prepared for the changes and your liver.

So, dear Scott, Mel, Marilyn, Beth, Bob or Bob - What do my experts think?  Any advice will be appreciated.

Thank you,

Nancy W                          

First of all...you should be asleep right now!

Any weight you lose will help you in the surgery.  So...why not give it a try?  As obese people, we have tried all of our lives to lose weight.  We have yo-yo dieted forever, only to put it right back on.  Let's look at this as the beginning of a new life. 

So, my answer is give it a shot!  Try and lose as much as possible before surgery!  Just don't stress over it. 

And always get a good nights sleep!  Only people who have to be at work early should be up right now!  LOL!

Hang in there Nancy!
Scott

Nancy

You are correct...  you need to go on  few day diet before surgery to shrink your liver.  That will help the surgeon a lot while he is in there with the "equipment"... That's great that you don't have to spend 6, 3 or 1 month on a preop and lose a certain amount of weight that most insurances make folks do...  but there is importance in the "preop" diet.

Scott, perhaps Paula and a few others will share what to do on your own, as my memory fails on what my surgeon requested me to do...  I think it ws a 5 day diet...  it basically consisted of only one meal a day and the others were liquid drinks such as EAS drinks, Slimfst or Carnation instant brkfst.... 

Dr. Dyer puts his patients on a 2 week liquid diet to try and shrink the liver!  Wow, at 4 this morning I totally forgot about that one!

The diet consisted of any liquid, plus EAS shakes.  Then 1 or 2 days before, it was all clear liquids!

Scott

Vandy puts you on an 8-day liquid diet to shrink the liver prior to surgery. You drink Carnation Instant Breakfast (No Sugar Added) up to six times a day. You can also have decaf coffee and tea, CrystaL Lite,  and water.  It worked great.

I lost 25 pounds liquids before surgery.  Have you checked with your surgeon?  Most require at least a 7 day liquid protein diet, and theb clear liqids for 2 days prior to surgery.
Marilyn

I would strongly recommend some sort of pre-op diet.

I'm really suprised that your surgen did not require you to do "something".

My surgen was Dr Lynch at Baptist.

I had a two week pre-op diet.  The first week was 2 protein shakes or drinks (protein shake, carnation sugar free instant breakfast, EAS, something like that) and one frozen low calorie entree per day (I would swap it up for either lunch or dinner).  Also you could have unlimited water, tea with no sugar, black coffee, sugar free popsicles, etc. (use these to your advantage, to keep your stomache full).

2nd week was 4 protein drinks only, no solid food.  You could still have unlimited water, sugar free popsicles, brooth, etc, but that was it.  The day before was only clear liquids.

Dr Lynch said that my liver was fine, and I also started on the weight loss and lost 20 lbs during that time.  Also it was easier to "transistion" to the no lifestyle.

I would talk with your doctor again and make sure that this what he wants.

I hope that this helps.
Michael.

Nancy I don't know how necessary it is I've know three people that did nothing pre-op other then stop eating before midnight the day of surgery? That being said from all I've been told it does shrink your liver which helps the surgeon maneuver around easier. So I think its your call your surgeon must not be overly concern with it. But if you choose try a week of carnation instant breakfast six a day roughly 1 every 2 hours. Good Luck! I think Cindy from Alabama was another one who didn't go on a pre-op diet. C'ya Bob

Thanks everyone for the great advice.  I knew I could count on this board to come through for me. 

I see my NUT on Dec 4 and will also ask her about this but, yes, I think I will feel better if I try to start now.  In the last couple of months I have stopped carbonated sodas and caffene. 

One question - what is EAS drink?

Thank you again

Love,

Nancy Wallace