Anemia & surgery

Will they perform surgery if I am anemic?

I am 2.5 weeks until surgery and the bleeding has started again. It has been about 2 weeks.

I have a call in to the doctor. *sigh*

I have already had my pre op testing, about 2 weeks ago.

I would call the doctor. I do not know if they will perform surgery if you are anemic. But, they may be able to give you something to help.

Good luck.

	Quote:
Originally Posted by marestail I would call the doctor. I do not know if they will perform surgery if you are anemic. But, they may be able to give you something to help. Good luck.

They have already given me a depo provera shot. It only lasted about 1.5 months.

Hey Grace!

I suffered from severe anemia before my 2002 surgery and they would perform the surgery until the anemia was fixed.

Definitely call your doctor. If you aren't already taking Iron, s/he may recommend it. I'm taking 65 mg with 1000 mg vitamin C (helps with iron absorption). I have no intention of having this surgery postponed.

Take care of yourself and best of luck!

I think it would probably depend on a lot of variables. How's that for an answer, huh? ;0)

I think that only your doctor can answer that question for sure.

I was so severely anemic they were concerned about organ failure, etc. I received 7 units of blood in May - two of those as I entered surgery for a D & C. Fortunately, the D & C mostly stopped my bleeding by removing my uterine polyp and after that my hemoglobin levels started to rise.

Both my surgeons told me that they would "like" my hemoglobin levels to be normal / close to normal, but they were going to go ahead regardless.

If your anemia is severe, be prepared to possibly have a blood transfusion as you enter surgery and / or after surgery. My blood transfusions were not a big deal. Aside from the intravenous Benadryl which freaked me out a bit, the transfusions were just time-consuming, not painful.

I hope everything goes okay for you!

I totally understand where you are coming from as I became so anemic I nearly died, thus the reason for my surgery. My dr told me they would still do the surgery but I had to sign a form saying they could do blood transfusions if needed.

A couple meds you may want to ask your dr about that have helped me are iron(ferrous gluconate) you can buy it over the counter or ask the dr to prescribe euro-fur it has more elemental iron so it's absorbed more easily. Also ask about Cyclokapron for the bleeding it has helped me greatly. My dr had me take it for 5 days and the bleeding stopped.

Good luck with your surgery and the anemia. If you have anymore questions about anemia feel free to ask. I'll be hitting the forums until next week when I'm off to the castle for my surgery.

Auntsunflower answered most of my questions when I was wondering about anemia and surgery so she's a great person to talk to if you have more questions as well.

Hi Grace
I so feel for you as I feel exactly the same. I am having SAH on the 3rd Nov and just started bleeding again. I only have my preop 7 days before so no idea of my levels, I am taking over the counter iron tablets but these have never been enough before.
I hope to see you log surgery went ahead and everything ok on the forum early Nov
Jane

I have been taking the iron pills. 2 pills (65mg each) per day.

We shall see.

I am worried about the same thing. I have been bleeding since August, with breaks between bleeding about five days. I am taking vitamins and eating the heck out of green, leafy vegetables, lol.

It is no nice to know we are not alone and others are going through the same.

I am starting to panic they may not go ahead if my levels are not ok and tbh I think I have only ever had 1 test when my levels have been in the normal range even with iron tablets. I spent alot of time worried and weighing the operation up and this iron issue has made me realise that I do defo want to proceed.

Good luck to us all and soon iron issues will be a memory as we get well Jane