Hi all 
So I have my first bowel prep coming up in a few days and was wondering if any of you had ideas on what I should eat in the days leading up to and after my excision surgery?
I know I can only have clear soup, black tea, jelly etc on the day before but a low fibre diet has been suggested before that. Any suggestions on meals/recovery advice would be very welcome!
I am nervous about my laparoscopy and adhesiolysis 
so want to do everything I can to help my recovery!
TIA x
Don't worry, it's actually not that big of a surgery. I was the same when i had mine last year. I remember not eating much the day before, and only had clear soup. They should have provided you with a leaflet at the pre-op and informed you of what you can/ can't have.
I didn't eat at all on the day of lap, my lap was meant to be at 10am in the morning, but it got delayed till 12:15. By the time i woke from the anaesthetics it was like around 2pm, my parents said i came out of surgery and back in my room around 1:45pm. I was still very drowsy and kept going in and out of sleep though, so I didn't eat anything till around 3:30pm at the hospital, and that was only soup and half a sandwich. The anaesthetics made me puke afterwards and i had bad shoulder pains, it was pretty uncomfortable and food will be the last thing on your mind, so make sure you have someone there to look after you post op. They ended up keeping me in over night as I wasn't fully awake by 4:30pm, and had not pass urine. Make sure you drink plenty of water after, and pass urine/ gas.
The next day should be fine, and you can pretty much eat anything. Although i stuck to soupy noodles, soft foods for about 3 days.
nothing red or purple as it can be confused with blood, so be careful with jelly & squash!
The low residue diet is basically no fruit and no fibre, so white bread/cheese/dairy/rice krispies. If this makes you constipated it is a good idea to use some lactulose or senna etc to keep things moving as the less you have to clear out, the easier it is.
On the day of the prep (depending which you one have, I've always been given moviprep) they will give you timings but you don't have to follow these exactly and it's OK if you want to start a bit earlier (but if they've said to do a split prep and drink some on the morning of the op, it is important to do this). It does take a few hours to start working so don't expect to be running to the loo within 10 mins, but once it gets going you will basically be passing liquid. Vaseline/sudocrem and toilet wipes are a good idea as you can get sore. I always drank a couple of litres of apple tango with it, some forums say to chill the prep/use a straw but I didn't need to do either of these things. You also don't need to drink it quite as fast as it says on the instructions, so set your own pace. The red/purple thing doesn't matter unless you are having a colonoscopy. It isn't pleasant but once you get going it's OK.
You might find that you feel very wobbly and washed out the next morning so it can help to have someone to take you to hospital if possible (I had to get a packed train into London on my own, would not recommend that!).
All great advice thank you, will stock up on Vaseline and wipes for sure. My husband can take me to the hospital and pick me up luckily! I expect I’ll feel fairly rotten before and even more so after! Looking forward to just getting on with it now.
I'll just add... it took 12 hours to kick in for me so I was up all night panicking nothing was happening and that the surgery would be cancelled. I took it at 530pm the night before as instructed and the first BM I had was 0530 🙈 don't be alarmed and good luck xx
That’s interesting to know, thank you, as I’d be panicking too! I’m going to check the instructions on when I’m supposed to take it. Was your surgery delayed?
No... I was the afternoon slot anyway but I had a 2 hour car journey leaving home at 8am so was super panicking. I basically had to stop by 8am 😩
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