To Helene - post surgery internal bleeding

[Guest guest]

> So my question is, how would a woman know that she was

> bleeding into her abdomen post surgery? The bleeding

> is internal and she is already in pain from the

> surgery, so how can we know that we aren't hemorraging

> post surgery?

> Helene

Dear Helene & everyone,

One sign of internal bleeding is a drop in blood pressure. This is

one reason they take your blood pressure often post-op.

When I was in the recovery room after my surgery, my blood pressure

remained suspiciously and stubbornly low. It turned out that I was

anemic (due to banking my own blood, which turned out to be

unnecessary since I lost virtually no blood during the surgery), but

it took several hours to sort it out. The big concern was whether I

was bleeding internally, though everyone thought not since I felt

good, was alert, etc. etc.

Sunny