Garlic? How much does it affect things?

[randomtask]

The confirmation letter I got from Levick says no "substances containing large amounts of garlic" for 2 weeks before op. I am finding it very hard to cut garlic out of my diet completely as I am a university student and some of the tins of stuff i eat or microwave meals or sandwiches etc have garlic listed in the ingredients such as "garlic puree" or "powdered garlic".

I am checking everything I eat for garlic in the ingredients and have stopped eating take aways etc but I feel I will not be able to completely cut out garlic for 2 weeks... is it really something that affects the thinning of the blood a lot? And will it be ok to have small quantities of garlic?

Any advice appreciated.

[Grandpa Bambu]

You learn something new every day! I did not know that garlic is a blood thinner. Interesting... but why did my PS not tell me this? Hmmm.....

Check out this Page, last six lines of last paragraph.

[Yorkshireman]

Can anyone add anything on this.....Im finding it avoid garlic, and do not know how much is too much....

[AJP]

I completely cut out garlic a good week before the op, and also a week afterwards. However, I did forget to start taking Arnica a week before, so I had a lot of swelling and bruising. I may have been even worse had I not stopped eating garlic. Who knows.

Garlic, Asprin, and many other things thin the blood. It's a precautionary suggestion by the surgeons as some patients may react quite badly to having 'thin blood' at the time of an op. But on the same hand, it probably won't affect some people nearly as badly.

And just in case anyone is going in for an op soon and smokes cannabis, this also thins the blood, so it may be a good idea to give this up for a few weeks - or for good preferably.

Cheers.

[brother_gyne]

Strange- when I had my NHS op they gave me an injection to thin the blood. I wasn't in for long but the Nurse told me everyone gets one every day.

[Chorlton]

Brother_gyne,

Tell us about your NHS op in a post.  It would be interesting to hear about how it went who the surgon was and if your happy with the results.  Most of us recently went with Levick.  Another view point would be good for those reading the site.

Chorlton

[brother_gyne]

I wrote up my experiences under the name vestie. In short my ops were done about this time of year in 2003. I waited 3 months between seeing the GP and the op. I visited a day surgery ward, stayed overnight had the op in the morning. The care was first rate and the op a great success however when I woke up I was told they had only done the left hand side! It now looks great - as flat as could be. They told me I could have the other half done if needed but to wait and see. When I went back in August they did the other half but I got a different surgeon. The morning of the Op he came to see me to say he hadn't done one for 5 years do I want to go ahead. I did but the op was not as good as the first, its less but you can see some difference. I wonder now if I could get a discount private deal for one side only?