Diet taboos after ectopic pregnancy treatment

You must not eat raw, cold, spicy, or strong blood-activating foods for 1-3 days after surgery. Try to avoid indigestible foods that are high in oil and sugar and prone to flatulence within 2 weeks after surgery. It is best not to drink alcohol or high-concentration caffeine drinks for 1 month. In addition, there are no absolute dietary restrictions. There is no need to blindly follow the trend and buy high-priced tonics. You can eat most daily foods as long as you don’t feel uncomfortable after eating them.

Last week, I met a 26-year-old girl in the outpatient clinic. On the second day after laparoscopy, her mother was worried about her physical weakness. She stewed black chicken soup with donkey hide gelatin, longan, and red ginseng early in the morning. As a result, she drank less than half a bowl. In the afternoon, the amount of vaginal bleeding doubled from the previous day. She also had a dull pain in her lower abdomen. The family was frightened and rushed to the hospital for a review. In fact, this situation is quite common. The old custom in many places is to put brown sugar, red dates, longan, and donkey-hide gelatin on the dining table one by one. From the perspective of Western medicine, the wound has not completely scabbed just after the operation. In patients undergoing conservative treatment, the ectopic pregnancy mass in the pelvic cavity has not yet been absorbed, and the HCG has not yet dropped to the normal value. Eating strong blood-activating foods at this time is likely to increase the risk of wound bleeding or even mass rupture. It’s not that these tonics are bad, it’s just that the timing is wrong. When the HCG turns negative and the mass shrinks significantly after the re-examination 2 weeks after the operation, it’s absolutely fine for a girl who usually has a deficiency of qi and blood to eat some food that replenishes qi and blood. She doesn’t need to be beaten to death.

There is another family member who left a deep impression on me. His wife just had an open ectopic pregnancy surgery two days ago. He felt that the food she ate in the hospital was too light, so he secretly bought iced milk tea, fried chicken drumsticks and iced coke to bring in. As a result, the girl became bloated and cried that night after eating it. Her belly was even bigger than when the mass was the largest before the operation. It took almost 4 hours to calm down the flatulence. Whether it is laparoscopy or laparotomy, anesthesia will be used during the operation, and intestinal peristalsis will be temporarily inhibited. In particular, laparotomy surgery will stimulate the intestines more obviously. Eating too many high-fat fried foods, beans, sweet potatoes, carbonated drinks and other flatulent foods in the week before surgery can easily increase the burden on the intestines, and even cause intestinal obstruction in severe cases. But don’t be too harsh. For example, you have been in the hospital for three days and you are really hungry. It’s really okay to drink half a sip of room-temperature milk tea to relieve your craving. Don’t just drink a liter in one go. You won’t suffer the consequences of just one bite.

There has always been a big controversy about whether raw and cold food can be eaten. Many people use the example of women in Europe and the United States drinking iced drinks directly after surgery. I think there is no need to take this seriously. Different people's physiques are inherently different. If you are usually afraid of the cold, have stomach upset when eating ice, and have poor postoperative resistance, don't insist on chewing iced watermelons or eating raw pickled foods. If the abdominal pressure increases due to diarrhea and the wound is pulled to cause bleeding, the pain will still be yours. But if you usually have an iron stomach and drink ice all year round, if you drink room temperature sparkling water and eat room temperature strawberries and oranges for about a week after the operation, there will be no problem at all. You don’t have to be tied to all kinds of rules and regulations, but eating will make you feel bad and affect your recovery.

Many people always feel that they need to replenish their blood after surgery, so they move sea cucumbers, bird's nests, and fish maws home one by one. I once had a patient who ate bird's nests for 10 consecutive days after surgery. During the reexamination, his hemoglobin was still only 9 grams. It was not as fast as the girl in the next bed who ate two eggs and a handful of spinach every day. In fact, what you need most after surgery is high-quality protein and vitamins. Eggs, lean meat, milk, and fresh vegetables and fruits are more reliable than high-priced supplements and are less likely to burden the gastrointestinal tract.

When I usually give instructions to discharged patients, I never make a long list of fastings. The core items are just the few items mentioned at the beginning. You can eat whatever you want for the rest, as long as there are no abdominal pain, bleeding, or diarrhea after eating. After all, a good mood can sometimes help recovery more than any tonic. If you are really not sure whether you can eat something, just ask your attending doctor during your next check-up. Everyone’s recovery situation is different, and what works for others may not be suitable for you.