Good evening all,

I completed colonoscopy/anal fissurectomy/sphincterectomy 13 days ago. Healing has been coming along. Still will have discharge and blood leak out, but the pain is now minimal (it was quite a lot when it started).

But it's now 4am and I have been heavily bleeding out my butt for 4 hours straight. Not with a BM, just bleeding. I've gone through two pads already. The strange thing is, I did have a minor BM in the shower, and along with the normal poop came with it a decent sized piece of tissue (or what I think is tissue). I'm talking like 2-3 tablespoons worth. Now I am not in any pain, but 1) I don't know how to stop it (I'm trying an ice pack at the moment) and 2) I don't know what this means.

Of course it's a Saturday night so an ER visit is the only possible option until Monday. Has anyone here ever experienced this?

Thanks,

Matt

To have this much bleeding 13 days after surgery does not sound good at all. I think an ER visit would be a good idea to make sure nothing serious is going on.

Thanks for the above.

An update: I saw the surgeon who did my colonoscopy/anal fissurectomy today. Apparently the blood came from a small artery in the rectum that leaked. The blood pools up for a couple of hours and then releases. I wouldn't feel it when the blood pools, just when it releases. This was likely due to some minor physical activity the day before. Eventually the body corrects and stops the bleeding and indeed, after about 6 hours, there was minimal to no blood being discharged. The "tissue" was just clotted blood. Thankfully, I did get to see a doctor that morning: all tests were normal, so I wasn't going to bleed out.

The solutions are 1) actual physical pressure from a finger to the place where the artery is inside the anus (like stopping a bloody nose); 2) get the artery cauterized; or 3) just continue to not do anything physically straining for a recommended 4 weeks from the date of the procedure.

In sum, it's scary seeing yourself discharge that much blood in a small period of time, but, all told, no damage and no long-lasting effects (unless of course it keeps happening).

Glad to hear it can be controlled conservatively. I hope it fully resolves soon.