Diet taboos for appendicitis surgery

There is no unified standard answer to diet after appendicitis surgery. The core should be to adhere to three red lines that must not be touched - ❌ Taking supplements without passing gas after surgery, ❌ Indigestible/strongly irritating foods during the recovery period, ❌ Overeating right after discharge. The rest of the taboos can be flexibly adjusted according to one's own recovery situation, and there is no need to stick to the standardized recipes on the Internet.

Don’t believe it. Last week, my best friend had a minimally invasive appendicitis surgery. Her mother was so distressed. Just 6 hours after the operation, she brought pigeon soup that had been stewed all afternoon in a thermos bucket. The oil was so thick that a white film formed on the surface. After taking two big sips, my best friend felt so bloated and broke into a cold sweat that night. The nurse on duty came over and opened the lid of the soup bucket and laughed angrily: "Her stomach is still numb now. You feed her such oil, aren't you making her suffer?" ”

Let me first talk about the things to pay attention to in the first few hours after the operation. Many people have misunderstandings. In the first 6 hours after ordinary non-perforated appendicitis surgery, the anesthetic effect has not completely worn off, and the gastrointestinal tract is in a "paralyzed" state. Let alone eating, try not to drink too much water, just take a sip to moisten your lips. There are actually different academic views on this topic: traditional surgery requires that you have to wait for exhaust (that is, farting, indicating that gastrointestinal motility has recovered) before eating, while the concept of Rapid Recovery Surgery (ERAS), which has become popular in recent years, believes that minimally invasive patients with no perforation and no serious infection can sip a small amount of room temperature water 2 hours after surgery, which will not increase the burden on the gastrointestinal tract, but can reduce throat discomfort. Who specifically do you listen to? Just listen to your own doctor. He knows the situation in your abdominal cavity best.

Don't be too anxious to be happy when you finally pass gas. At this time, your intestines are still a delicate baby and cannot withstand the gastrointestinal tract. Try to eat clear liquids for 1-3 days after the operation, such as thin lotus root starch, filtered rice soup, and warm electrolyte water. Don't touch things like milk, soy milk, and pearl milk tea that are easy to produce gas. I once took care of a 19-year-old boy who secretly ordered a cup of full-sugar pearl milk tea on the second day after the operation. There is also a controversial point here: many elderly people think that after surgery, they need to make up chicken soup and bone soup every day. In fact, the view of the nutrition department is that this kind of soup that does not remove the oil has high purine and low nutritional density, but it is easy to increase the burden on the gastrointestinal tract. If you really want to drink it, be sure to remove all the oil and drink a few sips to satisfy your cravings. There is no need to force it.

After being discharged from the hospital almost a week after the operation, many people began to let themselves go. At this time, there were also many people who stepped into the trap. Try to endure spicy hot pot, cold beer, fried skewers, glutinous rice, beef tendons, and other irritating, chewy and indigestible food for two weeks. I once saw a young man eating butter hot pot with his friends on the third day after being discharged from the hospital. He suffered from abdominal pain for half a month after eating. When he went for a follow-up examination, it was found that the stomach was stimulated and spasmed, and the sutures in the abdominal cavity were pulled. Fortunately, there was no perforation, otherwise it would really be more of a loss than the gain. Of course, there’s no need to overdo it. If you grew up in Sichuan or Hunan, it’s okay to eat spicy food every time. It’s also okay to eat mildly spicy home-cooked food about 10 days after the surgery. As long as you don’t have abdominal pain, diarrhea, or vomiting after eating, you don’t have to force yourself to drink plain porridge. A good mood will be more conducive to recovery.

If you are undergoing perforated appendicitis surgery and the abdominal infection is relatively serious, then the above-mentioned things will not count. The fasting time and type of food are all arranged by the doctor at the intubation bed. Don’t compare it with ordinary minimally invasive patients. Everyone’s infection level and recovery speed are different.

In fact, to put it bluntly, appendicitis is just an ordinary minor surgery. Don’t be too particular about your diet or be too indulgent. Just follow your body’s feelings. If you are really unsure, ask the surgeon. It’s much more reliable than searching online for standardized recipes about “what you must eat for 7 days after surgery”~