I am now 4 days post-op and am confused about the intervals I need to give while drinking fluids. My doc said to give 30 second breaks- does that mean I can drink water non stop if I give thirty second breaks? In my diet booklet it says 15 minutes for every 30 ml?? And when I have my broth (250 ml for a meal and nothing else) do I have to finish it in an hour? Help please with how long I have to wait in between...

The 30 ml/15 minutes is the minimum to get all your fluid in. You can pretty much sip constantly if it causes you no pain. I could drink pretty much normally by the time I got home from the hospital. So long as you just sip. Same goes for broth.

Thank you ?

Our general goal was to sip an ounce (30ml) every five minutes if you can. Inflammation in the stomach after surgery can vary widely, so some can drink fairly normally (no guzzling or chugging!) while others may have to sip very slowly, I could sip down a bowl of broth (6-8 oz?) and a 4 oz juice box in a half hour sitting in the hospital, and that was of no concern to the doc; when my wife went through this a few years before things went through much more slowly. Both can be considered to be "normal".