NPO After Surgery?

I understand why we can't eat/drink prior to the surgery, however I was wondering why nothing can be eaten or drunk the first day at all after?  I am reading the surgery manual for mine next month, and it says he orders NPO for a full 24 hours.  I will ask him for sure, but my next follow up is in a few weeks and I am perpetually curious. :)

Our surgeons allow ice chips right after surgery and full liquids 12 hours after.  Is your aurgeon one of the ones who does a "leak test" the day after surgery?  Usually those surgeons don't allow anything until they are sure there are no leaks.

Lora

Hmm.  There is nothing about a leak test in the manual.  I see the nutritionist tomorrow who also helps coordinate things at the hospital, so I will ask her.  I assume it's some sort of awful barium swallow thing.

I wasn't allowed to have anything until my leak test was completed the day after surgery.  Sad times.  

I'm kind of worried about not being able to eat or drink anything... but I will get through it no matter what.

For me, the only annoyance was that my mouth was dry - but I had wet swab things for that.  I wasn't hungry or thirsty at all.  I just wanted to sleep anyway :)

I couldn't have anything until my leak test passed.  The first one was no conclusive so we were stressed out for a couple of hours, not to mention the dry mouth.

My Dr wanted nothing for 12 hours before surgery and then nothing to drin****il 48 hours after surgery. Could rinse my mouth but not allowed to swallow. Had a saline IV in of course. Wasn't all that difficult frankly. The C02 gas in my system was the worst part of the process and by far the most uncomfortable. By day 3 that was finished...thank god.

No leak test done post surgery. Surgeon said he does those tests on the table as soon as the new stomach was completed?

For me, I didn't want anything after surgery as I puked until 1pm the next day, so you may find that this is not as much of a problem as you might think.

FWIW I wanted nothing to drink whatsoever.  Even the smell of the broth made me sick - and still does to this day!