Surgical infection?!
Question: I had surgery 2 weeks ago, today. Yesterday, it started to look red, it was warm to the touch and hurt so I went to the doctor and he prescibed me an antibiotic to kill the infection. This morning, when I woke up, it felt less sore but there was blood on my shirt where it looked like it had drained. Is this normal? Is this part of the antibiotics job--to drain all of the infection out? Should I call the doctor again?
Answers: I had surgery 2 weeks ago, today. Yesterday, it started to look red, it was warm to the touch and hurt so I went to the doctor and he prescibed me an antibiotic to kill the infection. This morning, when I woke up, it felt less sore but there was blood on my shirt where it looked like it had drained. Is this normal? Is this part of the antibiotics job--to drain all of the infection out? Should I call the doctor again?
Draining is usually needed to clear an infection in a surgical wound, so what has happened is a good thing. Antibiotics do not cause infections to drain, but the antibiotics are much more effective if the wound is able to drain. It would be a good idea to call the surgeon's office to let them know what's going on - for some types of surgery, bleeding and draining after 2 weeks is an indication that something is not quite right, but it depends on the nature of the surgery.