Monday, December 1, 2008

10-Day Liquid Diet

I discovered the reason why I can only have low-calorie liquids the 10 days before my surgery. Tonight after work, I checked my surgeon's website for some answers to other questions I had and found the answer to this one.

Ten days on a low-calorie liquid diet (think Slim Fast) reduces the fatty content of the liver. The liver sits directly over the upper part of the stomach (around which the band is placed) and needs to be moved during the surgery. Turns out that a fatty liver is more fragile and can be hard to lift. It can also more easily fracture and bleed. Not good. Ten days of Slim Fast is a small price to pay for a safer surgery.

This helps a lot. I needed a good reason to not eat solid foods before the surgery, now I have one.

1 comment:

Mellissa said...

Even though it seems like a long time, a liquid diet of SlimFast for 10 days could be a lot worse. At least there are many different flavors.