Seriously? I am wondering if you are a new nurse yourself and maybe so fresh out school that you just aren't recalling information you learned in A&P classes.

Anyway, the answer to your question is that all the excess "green fluid" is bile. Your body secretes an enormous amount of bile a day. I can't recall the exact amount but minimum of gallon(s). In a patient such as yours and based on the info you provided, your patient sounds like a possible bowel obstruction from adhesions due to the recent surgery, or the patient has an ileus also related to the surgery. Until the obstruction or the ileus is resolved, the bile will come out the NG or through vomiting as it is unable to pass into the intestines and metabolized. It has to get out somehow as it is unable to be absorbed in its normal manner while flowing through the intestines.

So, basically what I am saying is that this is a normal and expected in this situation. The NG doesn't "dry you up" with the suction, it just gets it out the stomach to prevent the enormous amount of bile produced daily from filling up the stomach until the underlying problem is corrected.

Hope that helps. I really am hoping you are a very new nurse that is still learning because this question just worried me a bit. I would feel differently if this was a subject that was kinda rare, but an NG and suction are common every day events in nursing.

Born2RunRN