tonsillectomy: bleeding at 7 days & cauterize

hi
i had my tonsillectomy last wednesday. pain had persistently getting worse, probably the worst on days 6 & 7. the on the night of day 7, i had bleeding - spitting out blood, it was oozing, but i stopped it after a few minutes with an ice pack on the neck & drinking ice water.
however, the night after, at about the same time, i got bleeding again. this time i went ot the ER. good thing i went because i ended up spitting out abotu 3/4 a cup of blood over the course of 2 hours. the ice pack wasnt helping. at one point i spat out a huge 2-3 inch blood clot!
i had to get my wound cauterized - they put me to sleep n then burn the wound to stop the bleeding. they told me i was "back at square one" in terms of healing & recovery period. but i have to go to start work in 11 days!
has anyone experienced this, & is it true that your recovery period gets prolonged that much?
sucks to be in the 2-5% of complications...

Hi there, I had my tonsils out 26th Feb 2008, The first day was fine as i was medicated regulary. As I am 17 ive ahd alot of sore thraots and alot of bad hits on tonsillitis through the 6months i was on the waiting list. I bled on the 3rd day and was brought into hospital for a 2 night stay, as i got home two days after being sent home I bled again, again at nighttime, Ive had another bleed which wasnt too bad on DAY 12, All three times ive only been spitting up a few teaspoons, has your bleeding continued since you went into surgery again ??. thankksss

swtbeb4lyfe43 wrote:

hi i had my tonsillectomy last wednesday. pain had persistently getting worse, probably the worst on days 6 & 7. the on the night of day 7, i had bleeding - spitting out blood, it was oozing, but i stopped it after a few minutes with an ice pack on the neck & drinking ice water. however, the night after, at about the same time, i got bleeding again. this time i went ot the ER. good thing i went because i ended up spitting out abotu 3/4 a cup of blood over the course of 2 hours. the ice pack wasnt helping. at one point i spat out a huge 2-3 inch blood clot! i had to get my wound cauterized - they put me to sleep n then burn the wound to stop the bleeding. they told me i was "back at square one" in terms of healing & recovery period. but i have to go to start work in 11 days! has anyone experienced this, & is it true that your recovery period gets prolonged that much? sucks to be in the 2-5% of complications...

Hi! I had my tonsillectomy on May 6, 2008. On day 5, I had a major bleed which I went to the emergency department for. I was prescribed ibuprofen and sent home. On day 7, I had another major bleed. Went back to hospital only to be sent home again. I was told to gargle with ice water and not lift anything or do anything that would bring pressure to my throat. During the early morning of Day 10 post-op, I had another bleed, ended up in emerg, and was told that my throat was looking better than day 7, by the on-call ENT specialist, and then sent home. That afternoon, another bleed. Ended up in emerg again, which prompted the doctor to cauterize the wound(s). Two days later, another bleed. This time, I was admitted into the hospital and put into the Critical Care unit the next day, just in case of a rupture and the need for a blood transfusion. The doctor's thought I had a fistula (a bridge which forms from a wound sight - in this case they thought it was my corroded artery - to the tonsil bed) after a CT scan was ordered. I was then airlifted to another hospital to have an angiogram. The angiogram was never performed. The doctors at this other hospital had ordered another CT scan and after three readings, determined that a complex bed of veins that sits next to my tonsil bed had been nicked, thus the bleeding. I finally made it home from this horrific ordeal on May 26, 2008 with no more bleeding. After 13 major bleeds (the largest recorded bleed - 350 cc), I am fine. The bleeding was a high pressure squirt into the back of my throat. I would just let it drain out of my mouth. Quite a bit of blood had been swallowed. The bleeding would last anywhere from 15 minutes to about 30 minutes, but the pressure was so strong that alot of blood was lost. I've been told by many doctors that bleeding is normal usually 24 hours post-op or a week later. A patient may have one bleed, but usually not two. Also, after being re-cauterized, bleeding tends to cease immediately.

That weird that they gave you ibuprofen. My doctor said to NOT take that because it can cause bleeding. I was on tylenol 3 with codine and percocet and two weeks later i am still recovering.. but getting better everyday. I didnt bleed once after surg. I am just having ear pains which appear to be normal.

hello, i had my tonsillectomy on Monday and tis almost been a week and ive had ridiculous pain and they put me on loratab and tylenol, well im not supposed to take tylenol , so i switched to ibuprofen ....which i see now isn't a good idea....bc ive been taking it since day one and i didn't know that it would cause bleeding, thanks Linz89 , i appreciate the information.
i don't know how much blood ive just coughed/spit up but i do know im very cold , weak, and a little tired , oh and i hate the taste of blood burps....egh

So I got my tonsils taken out on Thursday March 26...supposed to be a simple routine procedure.. but guess not!!

On tuesday I hemorrhaged and lost at least 1 liter of blood. Went to local ER and they rushed me to a bigger hospital in an ambulance to redo the cauterization on the area. Sent me back to local hptl and was on IV for the night. Dr put me on more hptl IV antibiotic treatment so I did that over the course of a day and a half, ending thursday.

Then on thursday I hemorrhaged again and lost 1.5 - 2 more liters (3-4 pints) of blood. Back to ER this time cuz the bleeding wasn't bad at first.. When I got there it started spewing so they put me in a room quickly. I started seeing dots and soon after blacked out, couldn't move, started sweating and shivering. They put me on IV and checked everything. My blood pressure was really low and my hemoglobin dropped from 148 to 108. So once the IV ran for 10 20 min I was a lil better and was transferred to another hospital and they operated at like 11pm. This time they stitched the problem area and then cauterized it.

Finally got discharged yesterday after being in the hospital since thursday!!!

Hopefully there's no more problems

Hey,

I woke up on day 7 after my tonsilectomy with a mouthful of blood. i went to my local GP who said i had an infection and immediately sent me off to hospital.

I spent the next 14 hours on painkillers and coughing up blood constantly. Yes, i had the clots too and every 5 minutes felt like i was going to choke until another 2-3 inch blood clot came up. It was ridiculously painful and very horrible. I ate nothing and drank nothing all day.

I got taken into theatre about midnight for emergency surgery. The doctor had already tried to cauterize some of my throat to slow the bleeding whilst on the ward but it didn't work. I was in surgery for a little under an hour, and they cauterized the entire back of my throat. They kept me in for two nights following that and i've now been home for two days.

Fortunately, i am able to eat better now and think i should make a full recovery in a week or so. Finger's crossed! I think it depends more on the individual as to how long recovery takes. I had a really bad infection which is why the bleeding wouldn't stop so they pumped me full of very strong anti-biotics. i'm still on antibiotics, paracetemol and diclofenac... and avoiding hot food and drink for a few more days.

It's rubbish to end up in the, what, 1 in 1000 people who get this after a tonsilectomy, but you'll get through it. As for going back to work i'm unsure as a lot of rest is needed. For me bleeding out didn't put me back on day 1 so to speak, but was more a setback.

Good luck!!

hello, im 18 and had my tonsils removed last tuesday. overall i've had a smooth recovery, with minor complications here and there.
on day two the anesthetic and painkiller my doctor gaveme made me physically sick, no bleeding occured during the 14hours of vomitting.
all was well for a few days, then on day 6 i had an alergic reaction to the new medication, went the to the ER with sever abdominal pains and shortnessof breath. they took me off of pain killers completely minus your basic over the counter advil. on day seven (today) i woke up with the most pain in my throat i have experienced so far, spitting showed me that i was bleeding slightly. mostly just in little clots, with a bit of normal blood in with the saliva. my scab on the right pocket is also missing, so my question is, do you bleed a little bit when your scabs come off? and should i be concerned enough to go to ER> ? thanks..