Preparing for a general anaesthetic - how to BF when I can't drink anything?

[BreastmilkDoesAFabLatte]

I'm tandem feeding a 9 month old and a toddler plus expressing whilst at work, and both BF and expressing make me extremely thirsty - I can drink literally 8-10 litres a day or more. But I've got surgery under general anaesthetic in a few weeks, and am planning to express to maintain supply throughout the hospital stay, but am aware I'll not be able to drink for howevermany hours prior to the surgery.

Does anyone have any advice/experience of how to cope with this? Does anyone have any tricks for handling thirst whilst BF when they can't drink?

I think they do now know better. And fortunately, I had no nausea at all.

What I didn't understand, though... they made me wait for an hour after coming round from the anaesthetic before allowing me to drink, even though they were keen for me to eat straight away. Why might that have been? I grabbed and downed a bottle of water anyway

And yes, I've been BFing again no problem - well, except that I'm in pain. But DD (2) is old enought to be asked to angle herself so that it doesnt hurt, and DS (9 mo) is a chilled and amenable little poppet who doesn't mind DH holding him in position.

I'm glad you are able to feed without too much discomfort. I'm due in for gallbladder op. DD is 4.5mths, a fidget and often angry feeder IYKWIM and a complete bottle refuser!

Is your DD on solids yet - or will she be by the time the op takes place?

On thing that really helped with DS was that he could take things other than breastmilk - my mum cooked him porridge with EBM and he happily ate it all, with juice from a cup.

I really don't know. Was this in recovery itself or back on the ward? I've only ever seen patients being offered small amounts of fluid postoperatively and food a bit later after going back to the ward.

I was woken up on coronary care, where I then spent the night. They seemed to want me to eat straight away and then wait another hour for water, and I told them that I couldn't eat until I'd something to drink. They brought me a plate of mash absolutely drowning in gravy which I thought was a lovely touch - I was so grateful for the liquid that I decided to forget about being a vegetarian and then I just drank and drank water

Hi hope you are recovering well. No DD isn't on solids yet. Not likely to be til after OP. Such a worry but trying not to focus too much on it and just enjoy her right now!

I'm getting there. Still needing quite a lot of help to position DS, but managing.