Re: Blood donations- transfusions?

[Guest guest]

I've wondered about the swelling too... I did not have a blood

transfusion, nor did I reserve some of my own blood beforehand just

in case. BUT, as you mentioned, my swelling was the worst immediately

out of surgery. It was down by that evening and continually went down

over the next few days and weeks. It did not peak at 3-5 days post-op

like most people in this group seem to experience. I have no idea why

or why not. I wasn't mostly back to normal by day 3, but my surgeon

was unduly impressed at my 1 week post-op appt. by how good I looked.

He thought I would be much more swollen and bruised. Anyway, just

wanted to say Me TOO! but I don't know if it had anything to do with

having a blood transfusion.... Oh well! Wonder if anyone else

experienced this???

Katja

> > > >

> > > > Hay all,

> > > >

> > > > I have seen a couple of times different ones asking how

common it

> > is

> > > > to have the doctor request blood donations. I am having

lower

> > jaw

> > > > with possible upper, and I also was told by the nurse that

they

> > would

> > > > arrange for me to start coming in a month or so before the

> > surgery to

> > > > donate my blood. My question is, have any of you who have

> > already

> > > > been through their surgery had such a blood loss that their

> > doctor

> > > > transfused them?

> > > >

> > > > Connie

[Guest guest]

I had my surgery 2 weeks ago today. I did do an autologous donation of

1 pt of my own blood approx 2 weeks prior to the surgery. I had

upper/lower surgery which lasted approx 4 hours. I did not require the

blood transfusion during the surgery but did lose quite a bit after

thru vomiting after coming out of recovery (the worst part of the

whole ordeal. Since I have always given blood for the red cross, the

donation part was not bad at all.

My surgeon gave me my blood back the following day before I went home

from the hospital -to replenish what had been lost. he said it would

help me recover faster and overall from reading this support group, i

feel my surgery recovery has been fairly good. the first week was bad,

i don't think i've felt that bad ever (I am a fairly healthy person

with very few sick episodes). I had quite a bit of bruising and

swelling but as of today, 2 week anniv, the swelling is mostly gone as

well as the bruising. I am sleeping about 7 hrs per night with only

one wake up usually.

For me, donating my own blood was a good thing, I would not have

wanted anyone else's blood so it was a security issue. As far as

recovery being affected, it would be hard to pin down but if I had to

do over, I would definitely donate. The cost on my hosp bill was $900

for the storage of the blood, which is ridiculous, but my HMO will

cover it.

karen

>

> Hay all,

>

> I have seen a couple of times different ones asking how common it is

> to have the doctor request blood donations. I am having lower jaw

> with possible upper, and I also was told by the nurse that they

would

> arrange for me to start coming in a month or so before the surgery

to

> donate my blood. My question is, have any of you who have already

> been through their surgery had such a blood loss that their doctor

> transfused them?

>

> Connie

[Guest guest]

That's an interesting observation and actually seems to be about right

based on responses I've seen on this board. In my case I needed the

transfusion due to profuse bleeding, so I don't think the autologous

donation was related. But the interesting question would

be to see how many people didn't donate and needed a transfusion, and

correlate that with those who did donate and needed a transfusion.

Sounds like a PhD thesis for an aspiring medical researcher!

--Neil

> > > > > >