My post-operative experience revealed that I sometimes ignored scientific data in favor of fear and anecdotes.
Photo by Aman Chaturvedi on Unsplash
As I lay in my hospital bed, the bleeding would not stop. Pints of bright red blood poured out of my rectum as I trotted to the bathroom, one hand on an IV pole to steady my light-headed self. Until then, my post-operative course following bowel surgery for Crohn’s disease had been routine. My hemoglobin level, which had been 14.5 pre-op (normal), plummeted 40% to 8.5 at its lowest point, producing moderate to severe anemia.
I could tell that my surgeon felt badly about it. To prevent blood clots after surgery, he had given me a single shot of heparin (a strong blood thinner) minutes before my operation. This caused my bleeding. He offered me a blood transfusion with the caveat that it wasn't mandatory as long as I wasn’t feeling ill. I mulled it over, and although a bit dizzy, I didn’t feel “that bad.” Or at least that was what my mind said.