Post=Surgical Diet.

I've noticed that different surgical programs and surgeons have radically different approaches to some things.  For example, some people have to go on a liquid diet for a week or even two weeks prior to surgery, and take a lot of laxatives before surgery.   I only had to do clear liquids the day before surgery and take a dulcolax tablet. My post-surgical diet is three weeks of strained liquids, including fruit juices, yogurt, cottage cheese, and any low-fat soup which is thin enough to go through a fine sieve.  Then, two weeks of pureed foods, two weeks of soft foods, then a regular diet, minus sugar and fat, of course. Is this pretty standard, or do other programs use different guidelines, such as a much shorter or longer period of all liquids, etc? Dan

Mine was similar, but shorter times. Pre-surgery, eat whatever, but the day before eat light. I had a bowl of soup and a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch and dinner.  No liquid pre-op for me. First week post-op was liquids. Second week was strained liquids. Cream soup type stuff, no solid chunks. Third week was soft foods. Basically eggs, cottage cheese and some cheese. Fourth I started protein. Soft at first like fish and chicken. Now I can eat beef and almost any meat with no problem. This stage I am supposed to stay at for the next 3 months or so. Just saw the nut last week, and she told me no more than 5 carbs at a meal. Just protein. In a few months I will start adding more carbs in the way of veggies.

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Even the toughest criminals become remarkably docile 
 once separated from society by six feet of soil. 

As a support group leader and a member of several support groups I come in contact with people from my area and people from all over the USA. It just amazes me how different the requirements are in both pre-op and post-op WLS instructions. You would think with the ever increasing popularity of WLS these doctors or places like the American Medical Association and the like could get there heads together and come up with a standard of care for WLS. The people in my local area support groups instructions are some what similar, but some of the people I have talked to from other states have vastly different instructions from there doctors. Maybe some day it will be a standard thing. 

It depends on the surgery you have ...and how the surgeon does it.   I had an open DS, I didn't have a preop liquid diet,  and I was put on pureed foods the day they did the leak test. I was on soft foods by 2 weeks, and full solids by 4 weeks out.   Low fat is meaning less to a DSer, because we malabsorb so much of it....so we normally eat high fat high protein diets in the beginning. Scott

I started out researching all kinds of postsurgery diets and finally stopped, realizing that I needed to focus on the program my surgeon recommended in concert with the hospital.  I have a long history of bucking authority, studying until I am expert, and making my own path.  In this case I focused on trusting the medical people and letting them call the shots.  So far, so good! CB

Just to clarify, I'm not trying to nor seeking permission to "buck the system" and deviate from my liquid diet.  In fact, frankly, I don't even want the things I can have.  Right now, If I could get by on drinking a little water everyday, I think I would be happiest.  ANY type of food going to my mouth is just "yuck."  I'm not sick or anything, food just isn't appealing.  If this feeling sticks around for the next couple of years, that would be great for weight loss! I just thought it was interesting that there is so much diversity of opinion out there about so many issues related to weight loss surgery.  Even in the program I went to, there were differing opinions about things, such as the one nurse who told me to use lots of morphine from the pain pump, and the one who told me to use only the minimal amount.  In that case, the first nurse won, I pushed the button every 10 minutes, and my pain was extremely minimal.   Dan