Blood Loss during Surgery

Did anyone experience extreme blood loss during surgery to the point of having a transfusion? This is a HUGE concern of mine.

I didn't lose blood during surgery but after surgery I developed bleeding from the rectum - they said that it was "old blood" - they alos said they had seen it before and not to worry about it, but I was losing what seemed to me to be gallons and I was starting to have panic attacks - they put me back in the hospital and transfused me with two pints of blood - the actual transfusions were interesting in that they were so careful about matching everything - my name and hospital number, explaining any adverse reactions that might be possible - they were very careful. Once I had the transfusions, my bleeding did stop and my hemaglobin stayed stable so they released me after two days. Hope this helps, Meg

I know I lost quite a bit of blood during surgery, but they decided I was not bad enough to require a transfusion. In hindsight I kinda wish they had, I was weak after surgery - my husband and mother both saw me in the recovery room and told me I looked like a corpse lol. I bounced back just fine over time though. On a side note, back in 1990 I did have a ruptured ectopic pregnancy which caused me to have 3 blood transfusions during the emergency surgery and one afterwards - and I promise you a blood transfusion while you are awake is NO FUN. Because for health and safety reasons, you cannot warm up blood from the freezer, so they basically let it drip in your arm while it is just thawed and let me tell you it BURNS. I talked them out of giving me a second transfusion after enduring the first one with the promise of lots of elephant sized iron pills for 2 weeks afterwards.