Post-operative bleeding / emergency surgery

Hi all,

About a year back I had my gallbladder removed. At the time of the operation I was 27 years old, average weight, and not suffereing any sypmtoms of gallstones.

I had it done at the day surgery unit, by keyhole surgery (Laparoscopic cholecystectomy) and they said I could go home at lunchtime. However, following the surgery they must have suspected all was not well as they put a drainage tube in and decided to keep me over night for obeservation. I spent the day asleep, and did not have the energy to read or hold a conversation. In the night I started feeling very dizzy and confused and my blood pressure dropped to 70/50. The doctors were unsure of what was happening and took a lot of blood tests (which was a problem as my veins are rubbish at the ebst of times let alone with such low blood pressure), as well as putting me on an ECG and a nebuliser. Eventually they worked out I was bleeding internally, which was a surprise as no blood was draining through the tube.

First thing the next morning I had a second operation (keyhole again thankfully) and they investigated the problem. Apparently when they peel the gallbladder away from the liver wall this can tear some blood vessels and mine had not been properly cauterized. Your blood pressure is reduced under general anaesthetic and bleeding can start up when it goes back to normal post-operatively. So I was bleeding internally and not clotting, although the blood had formed a clot in the drainage tube so it wasn't coming out and so the doctors assumed I was ok. So during the second operation they cauterized me and put a much bigger drainage tube in, and I stayed in hospital for six days, although the bleeding went on for a few days after that. In total I had blood transfusions of four units.

Luckily I suffered virtually no pain, and being young and fit it only took me a couple of weeks to get back to normal business.

However, I'm feeling very weird and upset about this still, and have searched a few times for info on the web, but never come up with any stats or others having had a similar experience. I would really like to hear if anyone else suffered from anything like this.

Ruth. Tweet