Breathing Tube

[tc17]

Hi,

My question doesn't have to do with heart valve surgery, but my mother recently had surgery for Atrial Fibrillation, and she had a Catheter Ablation done (where they run a wire up to the heart through a vein). The surgery lasted about 5 hours.

The doctor said they had a very hard time getting the breathing tube into her. She has a small throat and has always had problems even swallowing normal size pills.

But the doctor said after the surgery that she would have blood around her mouth and nose due to the breathing tube.

Later that night she did cough up blood and phlegm. But it wasn't as bad later the next day, she only spit up a little. Her throat was very sore then.

Its been a little over a week now, and tonight she said she had a little blood in her phlegm. She hasn't had it lately, but was hoping it was over by now.

Has anyone else had blood caused by the breathing tube? And how long did it take before your throat healed totally? Or do I have another thing to be worrying about? She said it was only a little blood.

 

[catwoman]

Sorry to hear this about your mom. Has she called her doctor about this in the last week to make sure that the problem is related to the procedure and not to something else?

Have doctors given your mom anything to help heal any inflammation caused by the breathing tube?

 

[hensylee]

some members with normal size throats report soreness but none have said anything about blood. Since your mother has such a small opening, she will have soreness. I think if you are concerned, you might check with her physician to see if it's still expected for a week or so. Blessins........

 

[sonavogel]

Hi, Tc--

Sorry to hear about this problem. I had a surgery back in April and had not realized how much trouble the breathing tube was going to cause me. I too have a small throat and sometimes soreness back there from swallowing something rough.

There was no blood to spit up following my surgery, but I was horribly sore and two days later the entire long triangle of skin that corresponds to the esophagus had turned dark/deep purple. The soreness that first night and next day were pretty bad, but within four or five days it began to subside, and the bruising left as bruising usually does: a little each day, till it was all gone. And my throat returned to normal, thank heavens.

Again, I'm sorry--but the situation should rectify itself over the course of the week. I hope it does!

Best, Sona Edited to Add: Since I had never had this before, and had not been warned about it, I was completely thrown by it. I had no idea if it would go away, if I had been permanently damaged, or what. When I saw my surgeon a few days later, I learned that this can happen to some people, but that it is not a permanent situation (or life-threatening). That helped me get over the next several days, until I began to see for myself that it was going away.

I hope the same is true of your mom.

 

[Kathleen]

My first thought is when they tubed her for an ablation. I have had far to many and each was done using IV meds. Two of the ablations lasted over 9 hours so it can be done for long periods of time. Poor thing, did the ablation help? Takes time for the afib to subside and repeat ablations are not unususal. Also seems like most have to stay on meds to stay in NSR. Hope she is better soon.
Kathleen

 

[bvdr]

My husband is very difficult to intubate and has had small amounts of blood in his saliva following surgical procedures. Five weeks ago he had major abdominal surgery and we repeatedly mentioned the fact that there had been prior problems with intubation and yet after surgery the anesthesiologist said he knew we told him to be prepared but didn't realize it was going to be as rough as it was. Sometimes intubation is done through the nose instead of the mouth and then bleeding is even more common.

 

[tc17]

I appreciate very much all the replies here. I didn't expect all these.

The doctor never did really give her anything for the throat. Just had her gargle with salt water a lot.

She takes Coumadin also, so I'm not sure if that would slow the healing of the throat. She also takes Tikosyn and Digoxin.

As for the Ablation, she has been getting the fast heartbeats still, but from what I read, that is normal after its done because the heart has been irritated, and it might take 30 to 90 days before you know how well the ablation worked.

She did say the doctors never did look in her throat again after it was done. I don't know if they don't care or if they don't think its much. She has two doctors, the doctor that did the operation, and she saw her normal cardiologist this past week for taking a blood sample.

 

[tc17]

My husband is very difficult to intubate and has had small amounts of blood in his saliva following surgical procedures. Five weeks ago he had major abdominal surgery and we repeatedly mentioned the fact that there had been prior problems with intubation and yet after surgery the anesthesiologist said he knew we told him to be prepared but didn't realize it was going to be as rough as it was. Sometimes intubation is done through the nose instead of the mouth and then bleeding is even more common.

I wonder if that is how my mother had blood from the nose? They didn't mention anything about what they did to finally get the tube in. The doctor just acted like it was the hardest he had done. He mentioned something about it would not be good if they had to cut her open, but I don't know what he meant by that.

Fortunetly she said she remembers nothing of the entire operation. Unless she just forgot from the amnesia stuff they give.

 

[Lynlw]

Hi,
Do you know if it is fresh (bright red) or older (brownish) blood? My 19 year old son, just had surgery last month and was still coughing up older blood for at least 10 days (he had another surgery then, so started over) it wasn't alot of blood after the first couple days, more like blood tinged mucous. I think how long it could last (if it is still from the vent)probably would berelated to how much she coughed and got all that junks cleared out of her lungs, that is one of the reasons,they make you do breathing excercises post op to get all of the stuff out of your lungs.
I would ask her doctor, actually if it is fresh I'd call ASAP.
I am sorry your mom had such a rough time.I wonder why they didn'tjust use a smaller or pediatric tube, althoI guess it depends on if they usuallyhave ped patients if they keep the smaller tubes around.BUT you would think if they can intubate infants a few hours old, they make allsizes of tubes.
I hope she feels better soon Lyn

 

[tc17]

Hi,
Do you know if it is fresh (bright red) or older (brownish) blood? My 19 year old son, just had surgery last month and was still coughing up older blood for at least 10 days (he had another surgery then, so started over) it wasn't alot of blood after the first couple days, more like blood tinged mucous. I think how long it could last (if it is still from the vent)probably would berelated to how much she coughed and got all that junks cleared out of her lungs, that is one of the reasons,they make you do breathing excercises post op to get all of the stuff out of your lungs.
I would ask her doctor, actually if it is fresh I'd call ASAP.
I am sorry your mom had such a rough time.I wonder why they didn'tjust use a smaller or pediatric tube, althoI guess it depends on if they usuallyhave ped patients if they keep the smaller tubes around.BUT you would think if they can intubate infants a few hours old, they make allsizes of tubes.
I hope she feels better soon Lyn

I'll have to ask her about how red it was. She hasn't said anything lately, so I hope it stopped. I would have thought they had smaller size tubes also. They have a section in there for children also with heart problems.