Dr. Prescribed Diet BEFORE Gastric Sleeve Surgery

My bariatric surgeon prescribed a special diet for only 5 days before surgery.   However, I'm reading online that the pre-op diet should be two weeks in length in order to shrink the liver.   Should I be concerned that 5 days may not be long enough?

Every surgeon is different. I didn't have ANY pre-op diet, I was just told not to eat anything after midnight the day before. Follow what your doctor said and you'll be fine!

Pre-op diets range from one month to zero! Some are calorie controlled, some are carb controlled, some  are shakes only! 

Just go with your own doctor! 

Nope.  It varies by surgeon.  If you trust your surgeon (which I hope you do!) trust his pre-op plan too :)

Hi Gwen, thank you for your response.   I do trust my surgeon, so you're right . . . I should trust his pre-op plan, too!   Thanks again!  -- Jill

Every clinic/physician is different.  We had to do Opitfast x4 wks...four shakes a day and an evening meal to include 4oz protein, 2oz vegetable and small apple or other fruit.  These were to be consumed at one sitting for lunch or dinner.  Included in the pre-op diet were free foods such as sugar-free popsicles, dill pickles, SF flavored waters, Crystal Light etc.

Actually, it was rather simple and I had really dreaded it initially.  I lost 17lbs prior to surgery.  They told us that it "shrinks the liver"....really??  No, as I know now it decreases the amount of glycogen in the liver and makes it less slippery to maneuver during surgery.  Sorry if this is TMI :-)

Huh- that's interesting...had no idea why it varied so much

Many surgeons don't require any pre-op diet at all.  Part of the reason for some is that they don't believe that dieting for just 2 weeks is sufficient to shrink the liver (which is usually the stated reason for the diet).  Some surgeons, such as mine, don't do a pre-op diet because they want the patient as strong as possible for surgery (rather than having the body already be stressed because of a liquid diet).

Trust your surgeon and follow his plan.

Thanks very much for your response.  I appreciate your feedback!

The only diet "requirement" I had was to be NPO after midnight the day before surgery.  You only have to be concerned about following YOUR doctor's plan.