Ahhhh...surgeon's nurse screwed up?!?!

I just got a call from my surgeon's nurse...tomorrow is supposed to be my pre-op appt. where I pick up my OptiFast and TrePuree for my liquid diet. I questioned her a month ago when scheduling this appt. as I was told earlier that I would be on the OptiFast liquid diet for 2-weeks and the date she was giving me was only one week before surgery...she said it's "upto" 2-weeks and I didnt' question cuz, heck, one week less of a liquid diet sounded okay to me! NOW it turns out she "screwed up" and I was in fact supposed to be on a liquid diet for 2-weeks. Argh!!! So now she says they might have to push back my surgery. And this surgery is already too close to a family vacaton I have tickets for on May 30th!! She says she will speak with someone in the a.m. and see if I'm still okay. I'm so pissed right now!!! This process has NOT gone smoothly for me and now this!!

Hey Kristy, First, hope you are feeling better after the ER episode. I guess every doc is different. I didn't need to be on a liquid diet (i.e. Optifast etc) before surgery, just two days of clear liquids after the bowel prep. I really hope they don't push back your surgery because of this. IMHO, it isn't really necessary, or we would ALL be required to do it. I'm sure a week would be fine. Talk directly to your doctor/surgeon iabout this if necessary. If indeed they do put off your surgery, think about going on your vacation and then having the surgery later. I know it's hard to wait...but maybe not stressing about the timing and all that would help. I'm sure if this was happening to me, I'd be ripping someone's throat out, so I'm not trying to minimize your situation. Just trying to make the best of it. Good Luck!! Kristin

Thanks Kristin, you are sweet! And with no time to spare they finally called me back at 10:20 (appt. was at 10:45) to say that it should be ok to go ahead with OptiFast for only 1week and keep surgery next Tuesday! WooooHoooo! So now comes the hard part...DOING the liquid diet. I guess I can have raw veggies w/out sauce or dip, lettuce w/out dressing (why would you?!), low cal chicken or beef broth, SF low cal pudding or gelatin. So that is my pre-op diet. Yeah!

That sucks!! I wouldn't be worrie about your vacation, if everything goes normal you won't be in the hospital more than one or two nights, and then they want you to resume your normal active life, just not driving, and not lifting more than 20 pounds, so you can go on vacation. I'm on my 3rd week post surgery and the first week is easy, you are not hungry at all. just make sure you take your proteins with you and follow the instructions and you should be fine. Something similar happened to me, it wasn't the nurse, it was me, I supposed to stop my daily aspirin 14 day before the surgery and I didn't because I didn't read the papers they sent me, they also told me that they will pospone my surgery but the doctor said it was ok, so in your case it might happen the same. I think they give you some time frame just to be sure, but a lot of people make mistakes. Don't get stress. Good luck and let us know Christina