I just had neck surgery a week ago with a bone graft from my hip. They had a hard time controlling bleeding from the hip after surgery and I had to have 2 units of blood. I also was having Tachycardia while being in icu. I am now home and on Ferrous Sulfate tablets 2 X a day. Why am I still feeling so bad, and weak? Could I still be bleeding inside? My hip is black & blue and so swollen, I can hardly put weight on it.
My husband had hip replacemnt Nov 8, 2010 and had to stay in recovery 5 hours because his blood pressure droped so low. He could not do any rehad because when he would stand up the pressure to drop to the 50's. They gave him 2 units of blood and he has been back in the hospital 5 times with passing out. Today his blood pressure was 205/79 in bed, 133/73 sitting up then an hour later it was 156/74 laying down. He is on medicine to increase his blood pressure, yester morn in bed 175/98 and 85/56 sitting.
It is strange to me that before the surgery every Dr. he would go to would be amazed at how good his blood pressure was and it has not been good since that surgery. Help we are at our wit's end with this.
Hi Precious. I also had 2 units of blood in the hours after a cervical fusion as my hematocrit had dropped to 24(norm is 36). A lot of blood loss. Had 4 units after having both knees replaced at the same time.
But how you feel now has to do with the very deep anesthesia they use for cervical or lumbar surgery. Anyone on the Back or Spinal Cord Disorders boards will tell you just how lousy they felt for a good month plus after surgery.
In order to make sure you don't move even a fraction of a millimeter during surgery, they knock you out really deeply. Can't afford the slightest twitch when they are working around the spinal cord.
And the result is that the liver has a really tough and long time getting those chemicals out of your system. And you pay the price by feeling like he!!.
To help with your anemia from the blood loss, I discovered that if you take your iron pills with a Vit. C supplement, it will be more readily absorbed. It was suggested at least 500mgs be taken with each iron pill and I did exactly that and it worked. Brought my levels up rather quickly.
Spine surgery is a marathon, not a sprint. Takes a good year plus to fully recover and depending on how big a surgery, 2 years. My knees and my second neck surgery both took 2 years. You are only a week into a long journey.
Blood Transfusion & Low Blood Count 
