post op bleeding & fever

Hi everyone-just got back from a trip to the ER. Last night I had a low-grade fever (101.5 and second night in a row). I took my ibuprophin and went to bed. I woke up at 3:45 and got up to go to the bathroom and had a gush of bright red blood. I panicked. Woke up my husband and told him we needed to go to the doctor. I was so afraid that something was really wrong! (I have this irrational fear of dying from all this!) Well, they did blood work and said that my HGB was a little low, and he did a pelvic. Said that there was a little blood but it had stopped (mind you I had already soaked a pad on the way in). He had the nurse give me a liter of fluid and told me to go home and call my doctor-that this (hysterectomies) was not what he did for a living! Dr. made me feel really stupid and acted as though I had over-reacted to the situation.

Well, I am still waiting on a call back from my dr. I guess I will probably have to make another trip (30 miles) to see him today. Has anyone else had this happen? I had completely stopped having any discharge by Friday (3 days out). Am I a baby or what?

Littlebit -

You are not a baby! I would have freaked out too! My post-op instructions say to contact the doctor/er with fever or with blood soaking a pad -- and you had BOTH! It sounds like you did exactly what you were supposed to do. I'm sorry the er doc was not experienced enough to know how to take care of you. Unfortunately his problem became yours.

I hope your doctors office calls you soon -- and that you are okay.

Take care!

9 days after surgery I ran a fever of 101.3 at home (on Halloween no less) and went to the ER. I waited 6 hours to be seen and the fever was gone by then. The on call surgeon from my gyn oncology group still admitted me and I stayed for 2 nights without any symptoms. They pumped me full of IV antibiotics. The night I got home from the hospital my wound opened and the infection that was there became evident. The ER doc deferred completely to the surgeon because ER docs don't know the ins and outs of our situations. He should have called your surgeon (in my opinion )You are not a baby at all

As for the bleeding, I bled for 5 weeks and my surgeon wasn't concerned. She examined me twice and said all looked well.

You did the right thing by going to get things checked out, but try not to worry too much. I know it's hard though not to worry! I had my surgery back in April and had no bleeding at all initially, but a few days after coming home from the hospital I started to run low-grade fevers for several days. Then I woke up to go to the bathroom one morning and felt this huge gush of blood! It scared me half to death. I called the on-call doctor right away and he wasn't even concerned. He said, "This is not unusual after a hysterectomy. Pockets of blood can be left behind and they usually release all at once." Then he told me that I would find my fever would probably leave now since the blood pocked released. I was so mad and thought he didn't know what he was talking about since he was a doctor I had never seen. Well, you know what? He was right! My fever broke and I had a little spotting off and on for about 2 weeks after that episode and then nothing. Things checked out fine at my post-op visits.

However, everyone's experience is different and any time you have bleeding that seems excessive, please have it checked out. I hope all is well! I just wanted to reassure you that sometimes things can seem bad and not actually be serious. Let us know how you make out at the doctors.

Littlebit1 - you're not even a little bit of a baby (tee-hee!) Seriously - you didn't exactly the right thing. So sorry the ER doc wasn't comforting for you. Let us know what your doctor says. Take care of yourself and remember you're the only one who can really listen to your body, so keep up the good work.

This is an update and a thank you to you ladies who responded!

I just got back from my doctor's appointment. He did quite a "thorough" examination. I really must be healing because it was not really painful at all.

As far as the bleeding goes, he said that I must have some blood left in my abdomen from surgery OR that perhaps a stitch came loose and I bled into my abdomen some. Of course with blood, the body either re-absorbs it or gets rid of it. Apparently this is where the blood is coming from. He said that since the stitches in my Vaginal cuff are not completely healed, that must be where the blood is seeping through. Then it is "pooling" in my vagina while I sit resting, and then "gushes" when I stand (TMI??) He said that he saw no evidence of "new/good" blood. THANK YOU GOD!

As far as the fever goes, he said that low grade is normal, even can be a good thing as it means the body is fighting off infection. When it gets to be 101-the body is losing, and infection is winning. So if fever goes to 101 - CALL THE DOCTOR!

I told him about the trip to the ER. He told me that in the future if during the day (which this wasn't) to call his office. If after hours, call the hospital - they can ALWAYS get ahold of him and he can tell me whether it is necessary to see me immediately or not. Of course he told me if I really thought it was life-threatening, to go to the ER. However, the ER docs don't know the details of things like this.

Anyway - this is long, but I wanted to update you all, and also say thanks for your responses. I feel better about it, and hopefully "this too shall pass"! I was really beginning to feel like I had made a HUGE mistake!

littlebit -

Yeah!!!! I'm glad you're okay.

Thanks for the update.

Littlebit - thanks for the update and glad you're okay.

Also meant to say in my earlier post you DID exactly the right thing - my addled brain typed 'didn't'! hopefully you knew what I meant!

Happy healing!