After abdominal surgery, the gut usually goes through a temper tantrum, known as surgical ileus. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but always a bit sullen. The gut is king in our body. It has its own moods, known as the intrinsic nervous system. Sometimes he king's moods match the rest of the kingdom, sometimes they are complete, out of the blue, randomness.
If something shocks His Majesty, like an operation, or an illness, then you can count on a few days of cold shoulder treatment. In other words, the usual peristaltic waves that propel contents down the slide just stop, or if they do occur, they are not coordinated properly, so all the gas and...well, bowel contents, kind of stagnate. This is why we need to eat jello for a while after a surgery. (Speaking of which, jello always reminds me of my surgical rotation, when I used to eat unlimited quantities of it, as it was the only thing available in the hospital fridge). We generally prefer to let jello stagnate, rather than duck au confit or boeuf bourguignon. Those animals are meant to move lest they rot.
So, I am happy to report that I am not fat, I am just negotiating armistice with the gut, and slowly recovering from my relative state of...ileus. Sometime in the near future I will be back to the flat stomach that I never had.
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