SWEATS AND BLOOD
The good news first…it all turned out fine.
Reading everyone’s post op experiences was very reassuring in times of stress.
So here are two issues that I had following my rectal operation, in case any of you go through anything similar (if it makes any difference and for the record, I am a 62 year old white man)……
The operation was a success, the surgeon managed to remove the offending area, about the size of a 50 pence piece, with no need for any further action (although it did take three worrying weeks for me to find out the histology results and get the all clear).
Naively, I thought I would be up and about in a couple of days, but, of course, that was nowhere near the case.
1)
My first problem was sweating at night. This happened every night for four weeks.
I would wake up drenched about every two hours or so, towelling myself down and rotating my bedding for a dry area before trying to get back to sleep.
I was taking two paracetamol four times a day and the daily injections intended to thin the blood and avoid blood clots.
Then one night after four weeks, the sweats halved in intensity and then, from the next night, stopped completely.
So that was that.
2)
My other, more worrying problem was bleeding from the bottom.
(This is going to be graphic but may be helpful if you experience the same).
I expected some bleeding but, after a few days, every time I felt I needed to go for a poo, only blood would be coming out.
I know blood looks a lot worse than it probably is, but there was a reasonable amount maybe five or six times a day.
At this time I was constipated too, so it was just blood.
Into the second week it got worse and on the morning of the eleventh day it was coming out for about an hour and half and, just like with diarrhoea, every time I stood up and thought it was over, I had to go again.
The blood was all sorts, a cherry cola pink and thin, a darker thicker one and finally one that was thick and spongy.
At this point I was taken to A&E where I fainted and came round in a bed surrounded by doctors and nurses.
A doctor told me that the bleeding had been as a result of the blood-thinning injections and had actually come out through the hole left my rectum, which was intended to self heal in time.
I immediately stopped the injections and over the next week the blood eased up and eventually stopped completely, four weeks after the operation.
In hindsight, I am pretty sure that I passed out due to not having had a proper poo for many days, rather than from the blood loss. Maybe the the backlog was also responsible for forcing the blood out….I don’t know.
Nearly six weeks on now and I am almost back to being completely normal and even managed a few pints of ale last weekend.
I hope this is will reassure any of you that find yourself in the same place and are worrying .
