Have I done damage

Gloria-Caryl
on 8/8/11 7:40 am
  I'm suppose to be on a pure liquid diet, but I've gotten so hungry that I've started eating spinach or asparagas with my broth for dinner. I am one week from my surgery. Will the Dr. know I ate those vegetables? I also been eating lemons. I've lost 10lbs. already and do take the protein and water. Am I damaging anything inside? Thanks
jenflock
on 8/8/11 7:57 am - TN
You should be fine. those are items that digest fairly quickly.  I ate real food till the day b4 my surg and there were not issues. just be careful with your diet AFTER surg.  Try to follow as best you can.
    
Gloria-Caryl
on 8/8/11 8:04 am
Yaaaaa, thanks you so much
Sparklegigi
on 8/8/11 8:56 am - La Verne, CA
you are not on a liquid diet to lose more weight, you have already been approved for surgery,  you are shrinking your liver so that when the surgeon gets in there, he can move around more efficiently and it causes a better outcome for you.  Stop eating!  When you feel the need to chew, use sugar free popsicles.
Some surgeons can tell and I heard a horror story that my surgeon closed someone up and refused surgery because they cheated!
That probably wont happen to you, hey, we all went through the hell of the liquid diet, you can do it too!
                
Elizabeth N.
on 8/8/11 10:04 am - Burlington County, NJ
Are you preop or postop? If postop, how long?

Gloria-Caryl
on 8/8/11 11:15 am
 I'm pre-op. Surgery in a week. Do you think the asparagus made my liver fatter?
Elizabeth N.
on 8/8/11 11:58 am - Burlington County, NJ
Oh, okay. No, the asparagus did nothing to harm you. There is no way you could damage yourself RIGHT NOW with asparagus or spinach. The idea of the preop diet, according to some surgeons (and there is very little real evidence to back this up, but hey, if they insist, whatever) is to very dramatically reduce your caloric intake. This induces a certain kind of very fast weight loss that is VERY temporary.

What it does is it causes your body to think it's in a famine/emergency. Our bodies store emergency energy in our livers. It's called glycogen. When we have sudden famine conditions, the liver mobilizes that stuff and uses it up. When it does this, our bodies dump a whole bunch of water, and the liver TEMPORARILY gets a little smaller--well, in some people quite a bit smaller.

Now, AFTER your surgery, you absolutely CAN harm yourself by eating that kind of thing when you are supposed to be on liquids. So there will be none of this kind of cheating when you are healing from surgery, you hear? If you decide you're starving so bad that you HAVE to have something, you will talk to your care team and find out what they'll let you have. And if they tell you to tough it out, that's what you need to do.


Gloria-Caryl
on 8/8/11 1:23 pm
Elizabeth, you are one smart lady and I really appreciate you taking the time to explain all that to me. Hopefully others can learn from it too. I will promise to be good
newmerightnow
on 8/8/11 2:35 pm - AK
You are on the pre-op to shrink your liver. To do that you need to deplete your liver of glucose (carbs). Veggies are FULL of carbs. Be careful!  Proteins such as meats have NO carbs. Chicken is the highest in protein.
(deactivated member)
on 8/8/11 3:55 pm - Santa Cruz, CA
If you get hungry, have a protein shake.  It's liquid, and the protein will help keep you from being
hungry.

Good luck!
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