Anyone have a hematoma after a c-section?

I was released on Sat. from the hospital after the birth of my twins. I had to stay an extra night because of my blood pressure being so high. I've been dealing with that ever since. I think the meds are finally working. Talk about stress. My readings were really high. Besides the fact that I didn't have a good c-section experience to begin with. I'm sure that didn't help my blood pressure. Now, since Tue. I've been bleeding on the right-hand side of my incision and I went to see the dr. yesterday. She didn't see any bleeding and said to call if it got worse. Well, she took of the steri strips on that side and was pushing and poking and must have made it worse. It started bleeding even more. I went back today and another dr. came in and imeadiately said it was a hemotoma. I instantly freaked out. He said we'll see if the blood works its way out. Worse case, they'll open me up again on that side and I'll have to have a visiting nurse come in daily to pack it with guaze for 6 weeks. Yikes! I really don't want that. I just pray it heals on its own and I don't end up with an infection. I was curious if anyone else had this happen and what their experience was. I just pray it heals soon. I don't know how much more I can take on top of being a new mom with twins. I still can't believe I'm tandem nursing them with everything going on. At least that part is going well. I'm just trying to be calm and not freak out and take everything one day at a time. I figured if any of you had this happen, it would make me feel a little better. Thanks!!!

 

hi there!

i had a hematoma. i was still in the hospital though when they found it. i had a c-sect due to pre-eclampsia....the c-sect went fine though. i don't think my story will make you feel better though.

the day after delivery, they got me up to start moving around. I was sitting in a chair and noticed that I was covered with blood. They put me back in bed, cleaned me up and checked the incision, but it didn't appear to be bleeding. They had a couple of doctors come in to check me and it turned out there was a hematoma at the incision site, blood had pooled under the skin. They did some test to see how deep it was, and blood spurted everywhere...it was freakish...one Dr. got completely sprayed. Of course, I started freaking out and almost passed out because they realized a blood vessel had burst and i was losing a lot of blood.

They rushed me to the operating room to open me back up. They wanted to do general anesthesia but i had already eaten, so they didn't know how safe that would be....they had me set up for general and then changed their mind...they wanted to do another spinal. i couldn't sit up because i was in such pain. i was breaking the poor nurse's hand that i was squeezing! they had me on my side and poked me, i don't know how many times….but it was A LOT! it was awful! finally, they got it all done. they cauterized the vessel, but there was still blood oozing and pooling and realized i had “dic” (definition here: DIC- very scary!) i ended up having a blood transfusion and plasma all through that night. i didn't know how serious it was until the next day. Until all my nurses saw me and were very happy to see me. They told me then I had lost half my body's blood!

so, i hope you don't have to go through any of that...but i'm sure the dr.'s are on top of what is going on...at least i hope they are!!!!

good luck!

 

Yikes, my experience isn't as bad as the previous one. They found my hematoma while I was still in the hospital too. I was walking back from the bathroom with the nurse and blood started dripping down my legs and pooling on the floor. She had me get back in bed and looked at my belly. My staples were still in and my incision looked closed. At that point they decided to watch it to see if the hematoma would dissolve on its own. Two days later, I developed a skin infection around the incision and they decided to take my staples out over the hematoma so it could drain. They gave me some morphin and started taking the staples out in my hospital room. I think they got three staples out before the blood started gushing. It also sprayed the doctor, filled my bed and ran onto the floor. I was doped up on morphine and I had my eyes closed. But I can still remember the nurses going to get the doctor protective eye wear because my blood had squirted the doctor in the face! Once it was open, the doctor cleaned the incision out really well. She poured warm saline solution in the wound many times. She also had to cut out some dead tissue to clean up the wound. She packed it with gauze and covered the area with an absorbent pad. The gauze was supposed to be changed twice a day. (It's called a wet to dry dressing because they put the gauze in wet.) When the resident changed it that evening, he noticed I still had active bleeding in the wound. So, he had to pack four times as much gauze as was previously in it to exert enough pressure to stop the bleeding. That hurt, a lot. But it worked.

I went home about 4 days after this because they wanted to keep me on IV antiobiotics for the infection. Once home, I had home health nurses come twice a day to change the dressing for 6 weeks. I also had weekly appointments with the OB who delivered me to follow the incision. I was in a lot of pain because of the packing and changing of the dressing so I stayed on my pain meds for about a month. And i the beginning, I thought it would NEVER heal. But it did, and it didn't even scar that bad.

I was a little bit of an unusual case because I was on IV heparin to treat the blood clots I developed while pregnant. The heparin caused the active bleeding after they closed the incision. It also complicated the decision on whether or not to open the wound up initially. I am thinking about ttc again and I know this is one of my biggest concerns. I don't want to go through another hematoma!

I know this is pretty scary and it's awful to see blood coming from the incision. But, it's pooled under there, and really, you want it out. So if it can drain without the doctor having to open you back up, that's a good thing!

 

Wow. Those are scary stories. Luckily, mine isn't so bad. I think I actually stopped bleeding yesterday. We'll wait and see what happens. I have a dr. appt. on Wed. I think the opening in my incision has closed. I hope everything is ok. It's hard to not worry and just concentrate on being a new mom to twins, which is stressful enough. Luckily, our girls are easy babies so far. Thanks for sharing your stories with me.