That Night After Laser Liposuction

I took a cab home but realising I didn't have any food prepared got him to drop me at the local supermarket to pick up a ready-meal, and I went to the pharmacy to get some Paracetamol for the pain. The nurse had said it was unlikely I would need any painkillers but I was definitely in pain so took two straight away. I was alert enough to quickly go to the shops then walk the 5 blocks home.

I stayed awake for a little while, feeling woozy and traumatised, had some dinner and took Arnica tablets for the swelling (I will write a separate post about post-surgery vitamins and supplements). I went to bed early. It was painful to go to the toilet as I had to undo the compression garment and sitting down (and getting back up) was hard. The nurse had told me to drink about 4 litres of water that night to help flush out the surgical liquids and that I could expect some 'oozing'. I had no idea what that meant but assumed that the surgical openings would leak some clear liquid or something. So all that water meant I had to go to the bathroom a LOT.

I woke up to go to the toilet a couple of hours after going to bed, in a hot sweat. When I went to the bathroom I noticed there was a circle of blood on the compression garment, which had leaked through the gauze pad they had placed over the lower wound. When I undid the garment and sat down on the toilet, to my horror I realised blood was seeping out of the wound and dripping down in quite a large quantity into the bowl. I grabbed a large wad of toilet paper and placed it on the wound, putting pressure on the area for about 10 minutes. Then I went back to bed feeling quite shaken and scared and took more painkillers. Got up a few hours later to go to the bathroom again and felt quite scared about more blood. Again when I sat down blood poured out of the wound and when I went back to bed I felt like I would pass out. I live alone so wasn't sure what to do. I hadn't told anyone I was having surgery. Should I call my neighbour? An ambulance? My plastic surgeon on his in case of emergency number? (It was 3am). In my hazy state I decided to go back to sleep and if it was still bleeding in the morning then I would call him.