hi christine sorry i carnt help as i am the same as you waiting to see the surgeon, so it will be interesting to see whar replys you get, i do think having funding in place helps but you have to go through a number of test and complete a pre op diet, each area has a differant diet i have found when reading up on information re this, but it is all the same gole to shrink your liver, so its nice and small and can be passed easely to get to your stomach to make your pouch,i have heard some people say if your liver is not small enough he can start the opp find this out and stitch you back up having not done the opp because of this.
good luck with that hope it was a little bit of help.x x