Pre op diet

My doctor has me eating breakfast on Sunday then until midnight Monday I can have water, broth, juices, jello, popsicles and Gatorade. His scheduler said no red jello. If no red jello how about orange?

I take 1 bottle of citrate of magnesia Sunday night and 1/2 bottle Monday night.

My surgery is scheduled for 3PM Tuesday.

From Monday at midnight on I can have nothing not even water. The pre op nurse said to take my seizure and blood pressure meds Tuesday Morning with the least amount of water possible.

By the time they try to put an IV line in me i'll be dehydrated and my veins will be invisible.

Is this the regime everyone else followed?

Tomorrow night I think I'll go out for the biggest burger and fries I can find. Saturday breakfast at IHOP, lunch at sub shop (featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives) and dinner at a local Italian restaurant then on to Dairy Queen for an Oreo Blizzard. Sunday morning out to a local diner for a big breakfast.

My feelings are this is the worst part of the whole deal..They want your gut EMPTY!! And with that Magnesium Citrate stuff, you WILL be empty..It will be days before you poop again..You want to CHILL that Mag Citrate stuff before you attempt to drink it. Then drink a lot of water and GET READY!! (about 3 hours..)

When you get home, it will more liquid/soft food for a few days..Your appetite will be zero, nausea might be a problem..A couple of bottles of Boost, something like that, is nice to have. It goes down easy (cold) and gets your energy level up quickly.

In pre-op, if they feel you are dehydrated, they will quickly run a bag of water into you to make you feel better..Then they stick something in that makes you feel REALLY better! Then you wake up and you are post-op, on the other side...

Post Edited (Fairwind) : 10/7/2010 7:35:20 PM (GMT-6)

The conventional wisdom with all surgery under general anaesthetic is to operate on a patient that has an empty stomach so that they do not reflux, as the risk is that vomit can get in the lungs and choke the patient or damage the lungs.
For abdominal surgery there is an additional aspect which is to operate on a patient whose gut/bowel is empty, in part so that there is more space in the abdominal cavity.

To achieve to above two a patient thus has to fast and perhaps take some kind of laxative in the 48 hours before surgery and then be "nil by mouth" for the last 12 to 24 hours.

So I was a bit surprised by what they said to me.

I was due in theatre at 11.30am yet they said I could eat and drink normally until the previous evening and also have a light breakfast on the morning of surgery so long as it was before 7am.
And when I was being prepared outside theatre the anaesthetist and team actually said I could have had a light breakfast at 9am. (At about 10am I had been given a tablet with a sip of water to help me swallow it.)

Thus the only change to diet I did was to eat more healthily in the weeks before surgery and cut out alcohol.

So I was definitely not hungry, thirsty or dehydrated beforehand and they had no trouble getting a line in. I thus also managed a normal BM 48 hours after surgery.

The only reason that I can think of for this different attitude relates to the use of the robot.

Firstly the robot can work in a more confined space so can cope with a gut that is not empty.
Secondly during a robot RP the patient is head down and 45 degrees to the vertical and thus gravity will stop any reflux going in the lungs while the patient is out.
Whatever the reason I was very glad not to have to starve. And I had no problems. I was also able to eat and drink normally the evening after surgery (I came to at about 4pm and was eating chicken and rice at about 7pm followed by fruit salad!)

I was operated on at the AVL-NKI hospital in Amsterdam. So maybe the Dutch have a different protocol

Alf.

I had no restrictions. Period.

Mel