Nourishing yourself in the first few days post-surgery

As anyone who knows me can attest to, I am always fairly careful about what I eat (notwithstanding the odd glass of wine and occasional Sawmill IPA! ), but I have to admit that what caught me off guard after each of my surgeries was how small my appetite was, especially in the first couple of days. Since then I have spoken to many other patients and regularly hear the same thing; you know you should be eating well but the combination of exhaustion, medications, pain and nausea make that very difficult. This means it is more important than ever to ensure that every mouthful you do manage is as nutrient-dense as possible, and that you don’t fill yourself up with poor quality or processed food that is going to do nothing towards hastening your recovery.

So in this post I want to share the practical reality of what I actually ate, to demonstrate that it isn’t as difficult as it might seem to give your body exactly what it needs to heal, providing you are willing to put the time into planning your meals beforehand.

The day of surgery

My surgery was early in the morning, which meant that by the time I was awake, out of recovery, and back in my room, it was around lunchtime. Although I wasn’t really hungry, I definitely felt like something warm and satisfying, so the first thing I had was a thermos of homemade beef broth that my partner Greg brought in, and I cannot overstate how right that felt. Warm, savoury, and the ultimate ‘comfort food’, it was exactly what my body seemed to want. Broth is ideal in those first few hours for a good reason: it’s easy to digest, high in minerals, gelatine, and amino acids such as proline, which help support collagen regeneration.

Mid-afternoon I had a mug of warm turmeric, ginger, and honey drink that I had brought in to help with nausea, plus a small slice of frittata — which was something that I’d made at home before going in, with eggs, spinach, cottage cheese and feta. Eaten at room temperature, it was soft, savoury, and protein-based without being too heavy, but I probably ate only about half of what I would normally consider a portion. That was enough.

Dinner was a small bowl of chicken and vegetable soup, again from a thermos, and I had some kefir to drink alongside it. Again, small amounts. But delicious food, and I felt as if I had ticked all the nutritional boxes for the day.

Day one

The next day I was surprised at exhausted I was and how much pain I was in, as the nerve block that the surgeon put in the day before had completely worn off, and I had had hardly any sleep. Thankfully I had a protein smoothie at the ready, made from kefir, whole milk, blueberries, a scoop of high quality protein powder and also one of collagen, plus a little raw honey, which was perfect as I could just sip it all morning alongside my herbal tea (peppermint, for my nausea). The collagen was a deliberate addition — hip replacement is, at its core, joint surgery, and collagen is one of the primary building blocks of connective tissue. Every opportunity to support that repair process matters.

Mid-morning I enjoyed a cup of chia tea, which I made by soaking 2 tablespoons of chia seeds in 250ml of warm water overnight, as I was conscious that I had not yet been to the bathroom. Lunch was more chicken soup — and I was glad that I’d made a large batch! By this point I was starting to notice that the foods I was gravitating towards all had something in common: they were soft, warm, and savoury. Not because I couldn’t eat solids, which of course I could, but because my body seemed to be asking for nutrition that didn’t require too much effort. I now completely understand why certain foods such as soups, ‘beef tea’ (broth), steamed fish, custard, and blancmange have always been associated with convalescence, across so many cultures. The thought of chewing something substantial, like a steak, felt completely daunting.

Dinner that night was dhal cooked in ghee, with well-cooked carrots, pumpkin and steamed spinach — surprisingly satisfying in just a small portion. Lentils are genuinely an excellent recovery food: easy to eat, high in the type of fibre that feeds the beneficial bacteria in your colon, and a good source of iron, manganese, and copper, which support tissue repair. The greens added magnesium and vitamins C and E, the ghee provided vitamin A, and the pumpkin added more fibre and beta-carotene. I followed that with more kefir, as antibiotics significantly affect the gut microbiome, this time with a little stewed fruit and a couple of chopped dates.

Day three was pretty much the same as day two, except that for dinner Greg brought in a thermos of lamb stew made from a shoulder of lamb, so that the meat was literally falling apart, and so easy to eat. However it wasn’t really until day four that my appetite noticeably started to return, and thankfully that was the day I was discharged. By this time I was craving an omelette (with cheese of course!) and meatballs with tomato sauce — thankfully we already had some in the freezer which just needed to be defrosted and reheated.

A few things I’d tell anyone heading into hospital:

Prepare food and plan what you are going to eat before you go in. This is truly the best thing that you can do for yourself, and removes any need to rely on what’s on the hospital trays. Knowing that everything you’ll be eating is going to help you heal removes a whole layer of stress and allows you to focus on what really matters.

Think in terms of nutrient density, not volume. When you can only eat small amounts, the quality of what you eat becomes critical. A mug of homemade soup is doing far more for your recovery than anything from a packet, and every mouthful is an opportunity to heal — or not, depending on what you choose.

Soft doesn’t have to mean boring. Dhal, chicken soup, frittata, kefir — all of the foods that I chose were genuinely delicious as well as nutritious, and knowing that they were actively supporting my healing made everything taste even better.

Don’t be surprised if your appetite is smaller than expected. This is completely normal, and it doesn’t mean something is wrong. It simply means that your body is directing its energy inward, toward the considerable work of healing. So just trust it, and when you do feel like eating, make sure that your choices are the best that they can possibly be. Keep offering your body good things in small amounts, and your hunger will come back — usually within a few days.

Hydration matters as much as food. In those first few days especially, try not to become dehydrated, so that the toxins that build up during surgery can be flushed from the body. I found warming drinks more comforting than cold ones, but everyone is different, and to a certain extent it also depends on the time of year — in summer you may be more drawn to cooler liquids, although I’d always avoid anything ice cold.

One final note

If there’s one thing I’d urge you to have ready before your surgery, it’s a batch of good homemade broth. Not stock from a carton or a cube dissolved in hot water — actual broth, made from bones, simmered slowly and full of collagen, minerals, and amino acids that actively help support the healing process.

I’ll be writing more about broth — and why it’s so central to surgical recovery — in a future post. But for now, if you’re preparing for surgery and you only have time to make one thing: make broth!

If you’ve recently had surgery , send me an email — I’d love to hear from you! What foods brought you the most comfort, and what did you find hardest to manage? Every experience is different, and we all learn so much from each other.