"Saving" blood for your own WLS

The Blood donation thread brought up a question in my mind. Did anyone "give Blood" for themselves pre surgery just in case? I have heard of people doing it for bigger operations but have never seen anything about it here.  just curious

Not me, never even considered it.

Good luck with you upcoming surgery.

Rick

I asked my surgeon about it, and he said they only people they have do that are those that have religious convictions that won't allow them to take other peoples blood.  He also indicated that in most cases it's a pretty bloodless operation. So while I did thing about it, the Doctor talked me out of it. Scott

My surgeon mentioned my giving blood pre-op in the event of excess bleeding post-op, but before I could offer an opinion, he dismissed it as unnecessary.  Which it probably is in 99.5% of all surgeries. Wouldn't you guess--a day after my surgery, my Hct was way low (I felt fine, though), low enough that they had to give me 2 pints of blood, and then opened me up two days post-op to attempt to find the source of the bleeding.  During the laparotomy, they found a "meatloaf" (!) sized clot, made sure everything was fine (it was), and stitched everything up again extra tight.  And then they gave me a third pint of blood while I was in the recovery room.  Apparently, the cause of the bleeding was an anatomically-incorrect abdominal artery that had found its way to the right of my abdomen, right where one of the lap ports had been inserted blind.  While my gut was under pressure (due to the CO2 they inject), the artery was staunched;  once the gas was released and the lap port removed, it was able to leak slowly into the abdominal cavity.  There wasn't any bleeding related to the RNY surgery itself (i.e, no bleeding at the site of the pouch or the distal anastomosis) I was really uneasy about receiving blood; who wants to receive WLS to get healthier, only to end up with Hep C or some other nasty as a result of the transfusions?  Granted, the risk is low, but so was my risk of post-op bleeding!  But I didn't have any immediate untoward reactions to the transfusions, and I've felt fine since, so, so far, so good. /Steve

Looking back I wish I would have.   I had a blood clot right after the initial surgery and they put me on a heavy dose of blood thinners.   While it helped the blood clot it didn't help the internal intestianl incisions and they started bleeding like crazy.   I lost 60% of my total blood volume or something stupid like that and was on the threshold of having to get a blood transfusion.   Thankfully shortly after I signed the papers stating that I was OK that the blood I may get could have AIDS, Hepatitis, etc. my blood volume leveled out and I didn't have to get the transfusion.    It sure would have been nice to know that I had a reserve of my own blood available instead of having to rely on a stranger.   Now I do understand that 99.9% of the blood that is available is good to go but I sure would have slept easier if I had to get the transfusion knowing that the blood was my own  and not Hooker Pimpsalot Methadicto's blood.  

So if you have the means to give your own blood and have it available just in case then by all means do it.   If you don't need it then donate it if you can.  

I'm actually going in tomorrow morning to have my first unit of blood taken and then I'll have the second one taken in a week. My surgeon requires it of all his patients.

I suppose that would be a tasty gelatinous, iron-rich treat about two weeks out...lol.

Seriously, no I haven't. I have AB Negative blood (could you tell by my personality?) and Rh Negative is really rare in Japan, yet they said they had plenty available and more importantly they reassured me that I would only lose less than 1/2 a pint of blood for lap RNY.

Dave