I'm having LIS surgery this coming Thursday. Any suggestions for what to eat before and after? I have been debating doing a mostly liquid diet for a few days before and after. Maybe a fruit smoothie type diet to add fiber, but to keep things mostly liquid as well. What fruits are best for this? Any advice would be appreciated.

I just carried on with my normal diet, plus the stool softeners that I was anyway taking. However I didn't want a disruption to my diet, so took my usual lunch (plus stool softeners) into the hospital in a bag with ice packs to keep it fresh! After a GA they like to know you can eat and wee before they discharge you, and usually bring a selection of hospital sandwiches to choose from (this is in the UK). So I ate my usual diet instead.
Didn't work though - because a GA brings your digestive system to a standstill whilst you're unconscious, and any pain relief you have which is opiate based, also slows down bowel activity. Maybe your approach of keeping things liquid would have been better!
Sorry not to have any advice for you. Presumably you want to know which fruits are best for encouraging bowel motion?
Let us know how you get on.

Well, I should have prefaced my post with the fact that I had inguinal hernia surgery back in July. I was on stool softeners and miralax and still got very constipated. I ended up having to use a fleet enema to finally have a BM. It was awful. I would really like to avoid that problem this time around.

I used lactulose recommended by the surgeon and it has worked ok. I take 2-4 teaspoons a day and drink heaps of water. I recommend bran flakes or all bran perhaps with a banana. I tried porridge and the bm was really painful! I wouldn't do a completely soft diet as although you want to stay regular if you are only eating fibre then you will be going for too many bm's and you will be constantly feeling it. 1-2 bm's a day are enough post op. I was told I could do my normal diet so I did but was just careful. On days when I missed my bran the bm's were super painful so i have learnt my lesson the hard way! A vege soup worked ok but I also had things like fish, mashed potato and carrots for dinner ion the first few days. Avoid fried foods and tea etc makes you constipated. You need to have a semi normal diet so that you are strong enough to recover quickly. If the painkillers make you sick then you will need to eat carefully. I started on toast but I def recommend bran to keep you regular.
I tried fibre supplements but they just bulk your bm up so I actually found lactulose or sorbitol was better.
Also baths post bm helped. I put some salt in the warm water. Surgeon also suggested hand held shower to keep it clean. He said don't use any shower gel etc.
Soft fruits like pear, peaches, strawberries and prunes are good as they naturally contain sorbitol which works as a laxative. But like I said above don't do too much soft food or you will end in diarrhoea which will not be good for you..
I hope this helps. I would recommend taking lactulose the day after the op so your bm is sooner after the op. I didn't go for 3 days and it was super painful. Don't make my mistake!

Thanks. I hadn't thought about it that way. I'm just trying to find a good diet to follow to ensure a nice smooth BM. My colon is a delicate balance though, because I have IBS, which causes diarrhea. I think for sure I'm going to take it easy the night of the surgery and keep it light with plenty of fluids, until my colon gets moving. Then I will ease into more solids with plenty of fiber.