How long until they offer food & how long til you felt like eating it?

With a late surgery I am worried about being hungry. I heard somewhere they they don't feed you right away because your system has pretty much shut down anyway. But if I don't eat, I can't poop & I can't go home, so I should eat to get things going again? Is it dinner & then breakfast with hospitals or do they have midnight snacks? I bet I won't care about eating when I'm finally a princess.

First, you don't have to have a bowel movement before they'll release you. You only need to pass gas. Which, oddly enough, doesn't seem to be a problem for most of us!

Here's how it went for me:

11 am - surgery

2:30 pm - back in room and given a little sponge on a stick to keep my mouth damp.

9 pm - I was allowed small sips of water.

5 am the next day - I had bowels sounds.

7 am - the IV came out (I infiltrated and didn't want another)

8 am - oral meds (they gave me a stool softener, mega-ibuprofen and chewable gasX)

8:30 am - catheter came out

9 am - liquid breakfast (jello, juice, broth)

9:15 am - passed gas

10:15 am - peed

1:15 pm - given solid (soft) foods for lunch

I had a SAH, so my recovery was a little different. As I understand it, with vaginal procedures you can expect a little more swelling around your urethra and may not be able to resume peeing as quickly.

The IV they gave me for the procedure was just saline but after recovery they switched me to a glucose (I had two bags of that). It really does help to alleviate that weak hungry feeling.

I wasn't offered any snacks, but I did bring my own (after breakfast and before lunch I had some pecan turtles and plain almonds which really helped to counteract the all sugar liquid breakfast).

Take care.

Juniper - Thank you for all your many helpful replys, you've been such a help & a comfort to me through all of this.

First day of surgery (had mine at 8am) I only had ice chips. Next day I had the liquid meal like juniper, they brought lunch which I slept through & then they brought liquid dinner (barely ate it). The next day the catheter was out & they gave me a liquid meal again, then I peed. After that I went home - they didn't need me to pass gas, just pee on my own a certain amount.

Once home I would have instant oatmeal & Slimfast, other than that the drugs made me not hungry. I didn't really "eat" until a week later.

Gee wiz, no wonder people loose 10 lbs after this surgery. I guess I can stop worrying about eating, sounds like the surgery will take care of that desire on it's own. I'm a firm believer of good nutrition for energy. I guess Slim Fast will work, it's a start anyway, oatmeals a good plan too.

	Quote:
Originally posted by stacyshan Gee wiz, no wonder people loose 10 lbs after this surgery. I guess I can stop worrying about eating, sounds like the surgery will take care of that desire on it's own. I'm a firm believer of good nutrition for energy. I guess Slim Fast will work, it's a start anyway, oatmeals a good plan too.

The other ladies are right everyone is different. Alot depends on what your surgeon says and how things go after the surgery. personally I was in the hospital for eight days I did not have solid food until the last day and I couldn't go home until i went to the bathroom because I had endo and had adhesions around the intestines and they wanted to make sure everything was working right, before I left. I wasn't hungry at all though, so I don't think you have to worry about that.

I was there 9 days. I think two days after surgery they started the liquid diet, which I sent back untouched as it is in that place totally undrinkable. After about three days of that they went to all liquid, no better. Then they stuck the regular diet on me and I still couldn't pass gas--I'm looking at whole wheat cereal, banana, huge stack of pancakes, etc. I knew if I ate that I'd explode. I think the most I ever could eat of what they gave me (the hospital has no choice--you get what they give you and that's it) was half a cup of mashed potatoes and half a cup of peas. Lost 15# in the time I was there.

With a TVH you won't be in the hospital that long unless something comes up. I was on a clear liquid diet the day before and doing a bowel prep and the next day I had surgery about 10 a.m. I ate ice chips later in the day, and had no hunger at all. The next day they brought me some liquid diet stuff, jello, etc. but I didn't eat it. I asked for black tea to get my caffeine fix and that was all I was worried about. At lunch I was starting to come around and had a bite of a sandwich and some jello. I took a long nap and had dinner, and went home after dinner. Appetite was OK after that, although take it easy the first week or so. Being full is not a pleasant feeling for some reason.

I had LAVH-BSO and got back to my room about 1. They brought jello, broth and apple juice for lunch - drank the juice and that was it. (And, I continued to drink apple juice while I was there and when I got home. I think it helped with all of the bowel issues.)

But they brought me solid food for dinner (cath was out by then) and I was actually hungry and ate some of it -- beef of some kind I think but I'm a little hazy on that.

Had breakfast the next morning and went home around lunch time. Had a hamburger for dinner!

You'll do just fine. Good luck.