Passing large amounts of blood

Lorna, is it possible to call your surgeon over the weekend? Maybe give it a try...

If the bleeding continues to be heavy, you should probably go to the ER. But, it does not take much blood in the toilet bowl to look like a lot. What concerns me is the clots, which is consistent with brisk bleeding.

Jan

Hi, thank you for your replies. It has stopped for now and I have rang my surgeon, hope he calls me back today! It just feels like one scary thing after another right now. I'm worried there must be something really wrong with my Pouch. Is passing blood a sign of pouchits? 

While you can bleed with pouchitis, it is not typical. Bleeding is more consistent with cuffitis (UC in the retained rectal cuff). But, this soon after surgery, it could be bleeding from the take-down of your ostomy. 

Fingers crossed the bleeding will stay stopped!

Jan

Thank you so much for your quick reply, can't say how much less alone it feels. I' trying to stay positive and I'm seeing my surgeon tomorrow. Thanks again! 

Lorna, 

Do you have something that you could put over the toilet that you could empty your pouch into (do you have a child's toilet seat for example or put a very lager, open container or basin on a chair) so that you can see the 'real' amount of blood and not just the blood mixed with water?

This can help to assess how much you are actually losing. IF you start to get dizzy, see 'stars' when you stand up, start to feel very cold and tired etc...please go to ER.

Also, start to 'chart' the number of times, the times and the estimated amount of blood that you think that you are losing so that you can give it to the ER doc or to your surgeon.

Any other information that could help them to diagnosis this problem should be included...like what you ate in the last 24hrs, what you have done? Did you have a fall? Maybe lift something very heavy or push something? Carry a laundry basket up the stairs or bend a lot? Any of these could have been the origin of a tiny problem.

When they redid my pouch back in 2008, they had to flip it over to 'reuse' it instead of creating a new one (to save on intestine)...(I have a K pouch and it was the valve, not the pouch that was compromised)...they had to take 30cm+ of small bowel anyway to create the valve which meant an anastomosis.

About a week later I saw a lot of blood...it lasted a couple of days. As long as it stabilized and didn't get worse, the doctor was fine with it explaining that it must be the anastomosis site that was bleeding (there were 2 of them)...

It is a possibility but like I said, stay vigilant and if there is a fever or any of the other signs, please hotfoot it to the ER but leave your surgeon a message that you are on your way so that he is informed before you get there. Also, bring in your medical records if you have them so that the ER knows what they are doing.

I found it very useful whenever I had to go to ER post-op (usually blockages)...they were waiting for me, my surgeon sent one of his interns to wait for me and they did what was required immediately on 'intake' so that I didn't need to wait around for 2 hours and explain myself 22 xs!

Good luck 

Hi Lorna -- so sorry you are having problems. I hope all goes well for you!