Scary morning. Ugh.

This morning I had a scary experience.... I woke up no more sore than usual, and went about my normal little routine: Empty bag, make tea, eat yogurt, take pain meds. No big deal. I was sitting on the couch watching a Lifetime movie (tehehehe), with my cat next to me. Normally when the kitty's around I keep a pillow on my lap, since he has the tendency to try to crawl up my belly/chest to get in my face with kisses. I've been able to keep him from doing so since I've been home, and he's been good about staying off of me, but I try to keep a pillow on my middle when he's around just in case. Well, this morning I forgot to grab a pillow, and somehow my cat ended up kicking my belly with one of his paws when he jumped off the couch. It hurt, but not bad, and I forgot about it quickly after I covered myself with a pillow. Didn't even think to look at my stomach. about an hour later, I got up to use the bathroom, and as I was walking I thought I felt something drip down my belly... when I got to the bathroom, I looked down and saw some spots on the front of my shirt. Thinking my bag was leaking, I lifted my shirt to have a look. AGH! There was a huge pool of BLOOD on my incision, all over my bag, and now dripping off of my onto the floor. I started sobbing, not knowing what was going on, and called to my dad to get my mom to help me. I had no idea what was going on and was so scared, I didn't know what to think. When my mom saw me, she stayed very calm, helping me to sit down, cleaning me off, and trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I love her. :) Anyway, we looked at everything, and nothing was open or anything, it looked like somewhere next to one of the staples had scabbed off and so the mess was coming from there. I remembered the cat, and told my mom that was probably what had caused it. We called the visiting nurses right away to see what we should do. The lady I spoke with told me if the blood wasn't bright red (which it wasn't- it was more pinkish), then it was probably mostly just fluid built up behind the incision that was realeased because of the pressure put on it. She said to keep an eye on it and to call right away if I had a temperature or anything like that. Phew. It took me a bit to calm down, but I finally did enough to change my bag, which was covered in bloody ickiness.

So... I just thought I'd share my experience here, because I'm so releaved that it wasn't something horrible. I'm seriously counting down to when these staples are out of me!!!!

my cat liked to jump on me and sleep with me!!!! i havehim not do that but no im doing / felling better so ill allow him to get in bed with me now but illhave something over my bag under the pillows just in case his claws decide to pop out!!!! i had a simalar experince but it was nobodys fault hope your felling better :D

I already decided to get a kitten AFTER my final j-pouch operation.
Anyway, I'm glad it was another scary thing that turned out to be fairly normal.

If your cat hand't jumped on your stomache, then what would have happened to the fluid building up? Does it just disperse into the body?

Let's hear what she says about where the fluid goes usually, because it sounds like it didn't really need a very hard jostle to start flowing out.

A lot of wounds drain. I didn't have an abdominal incision, but with my long standing butt wound, I've had drainage and blood. Usually they tell me that blood is good, in that it means the tissue is healthy.

You have a much bigger wound than I have had, so I can see where the quantity would be scary. It's good that you have supportive family and medical people... and of course, I am not qualified to be diagnosing anything, but the fluid does come out, really could be nothing serious at all.

I would recommend checking your temperature a couple of times a day. Where it could be a problem is if you get an abscess (an infected part below your staples that can be high pressure w/the fluid). If you get a fever over 101.5, you'll need to get medical attention soon.

Keep us posted.

Glad you're relieved and it's no big deal..... there is so much that is routine for the surgeons and not for us.... my surgeon was surprised I didn't know something and I told her to just stop right there.... paused and said, "I have had this surgery ONCE." We have a good rapport and she got the point....

I keep a pillow over me at night for this exact reason. I never know when my little cat might strike! I'm glad you are doing ok now.