How do I know if I have gastrointestinal bleeding?

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asked Jan 21 in Other- Health by Sage6269 (1,170 points)
How do I know if I have gastrointestinal bleeding?

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answered Jan 21 by Higgonbottom (13,070 points)
The signs that you have gastrointestinal bleeding are blood in your poop or blood in vomit or even black or tarry poop.

The bleeding with gastrointestinal bleeding can range from severe to mild and can even be life threatening in some cases.

The signs of internal injury are pain, cold sweaty skin, blood in your urine, right sided abdominal pain and right shoulder pain, left arm and shoulder pain, rigid abdomen, tenderness over the injured area and abdominal pain.

The most common internal injures are abdominal injuries, liver injuries, spleen injuries and kidney injuries.

Internal injures can take from a few hours to days to show up depending on the severeness of the internal injury and may lead to pain, dizziness, bruises and fainting.

Internal injuries can result from tears or ruptures to arteries, internal organs, veins, capillaries and blood vessels.

The causes of internal injuries include blunt force trauma, falls, motorcycle crashes, car crashes, being struck by a vehicle when walking or riding a bicycle, commercial truck collisions etc.

Trauma that is penetrating occurs when objects penetrate the body and tears holes in your muscles, blood vessels and internal organs.

An internal injury is an injury to the inside of the body such as when blood vessels inside your body become torn or crushed and can also lead to bleeding internally.

Internal injuries can occur due to car crashes, being crushed, falling from heights etc.

Internal bleeding is most often silent and can go unnoticed for several hours or even days and then can be deadly although some internal bleeding shows symptoms.

If you ignore internal bleeding it can lead to coma, organ failure and even death.

The difference between bleeding and internal bleeding is bleeding is when bleeding or blood comes out and occurs externally such as from a cut, puncture etc and internal bleeding is bleeding that occurs in the body which can be unnoticed.

Internal bleeding also requires a high level of clinical suspicion obtained through a thorough history and physical, laboratory tests, imaging, and close monitoring of vital signs.

If internal bleeding goes unnoticed and untreated it can lead to coma, organ failure and even death.

And even with treatment sometimes severe internal injuries can still cause death so it's very important to get checked out if you suspect internal bleeding.

The 4 signs of internal bleeding are pain at the injured site, swollen or tight abdomen, nausea and vomiting and pale, clammy, sweaty skin.

Other signs of internal bleeding are breathlessness, extreme thirst and unconsciousness.

You sometimes feel pain when you have internal bleeding and the pain will be felt at the injured site and you may also have vomiting, nausea, tight abdomen or a swollen abdomen.

However in some cases you may not have pain with the internal bleeding and may be unaware about it.

Internal bleeding can be much more difficult to identify.

The internal bleeding may not be evident for many hours after it begins, and symptoms may only occur when there is significant blood loss or if a blood clot is large enough to compress an organ and prevent it from functioning properly.

When you lose a lot of blood you feel short of breath, tired, pale and dizzy and eventually you may get confused or disoriented as well.

Massive blood transfusions are considered as being more than 4 units of packed red blood cells in an hour or more than 10 units of packed red blood cells in 24 hours.

This amount of blood is enough to replace an average sized person's entire volume of blood.

100 cc of blood loss is a lot and is considered an emergency where you should seek medical attention right away and get to the nearest emergency room.

1000ml of blood is a lot to lose and represents most of the stressed volume and could be deadly if not treated promptly and when you lose 2000ml of blood you can go into severe haemorrhagic shock.

Excessive bleeding is more than 500 ml and over 500 ml is really excessive and can be deadly if you don't get a blood transfusion when needed.

Losing 500 ml of blood is a lot although it's not considered a dangerous amount of blood loss.

Most adults can loose 500 ml of blood without any serious effects.

The normal blood loss during surgery is less than 30 percent.

If you lose 30 to 40 percent of blood volume during surgery then your body will have a traumatic reaction and your blood pressure will drop further and your heart rate will increase and you may also have signs of disorientation and confusion.

The body makes new blood at a rate of 2 million new red blood cells every second.

And it takes around 4 to 8 weeks for the body to build up stores of blood and red blood cells again.

The body makes between 400 to 2,000 milliliters of blood per day and in an average lifetime the body makes 34,400 liters of blood in a lifetime.

The minimum blood level in the human body is between 14.0 grams per deciliter and 17.5 grams per deciliter.

Normal hemoglobin levels are different for men and women.

For men, a normal level ranges between 14.0 grams per deciliter (gm/dL) and 17.5 gm/dL.

For women, a normal level ranges between 12.3 gm/dL and 15.3 gm/dL.

A severe low hemoglobin level for men is 13.5 gm/dL or lower.

If you lose 2 liters of blood you can go into shock and your pulse can be undetectable as your body shuts down.

Also when you lose 2 liters of blood or more it can lead to loss of consciousness and your breathing and heart will eventually stop when you lose too much blood and don't get a blood transfusion.

Losing 2 or more liters of blood is a Class IV hemorrhage which is the most severe classification, and what is known as a “preterminal event” — one that will likely kill a patient without immediate intervention.

A person can lose up to 14 percent of their blood volume without any physical symptoms or changes in their vital signs and in a healthy adult there's an average of 4.5 to 5.5 liters of blood.

A person can lose around 0.77 liters of blood without much issue.

You can lose between 4 to 5 pints of blood before you pass out although some people may pass out when they lose 3 pints or less.

An average adult has 10 pints of blood and if you lose around a fifth of your blood volume it can lead to the person going into shock and the body shutting down.

Significant blood loss is when you lose 30 to 40 percent of your total blood volume.

When you lose that amount of blood your blood pressure will drop down and your heart rate will also increase and you may show signs of disorientation and confusion.

When you do have significant blood loss you most often do require a blood transfusion.

The signs that you need a blood transfusion are low blood cell count, bleeding disorders, blood loss after childbirth or blood loss after a severe cut or car crash or other accident, surgery that caused blood loss or a liver problem which makes the body unable to create certain blood parts.

Conditions that require blood transfusions are hemophilia or other bleeding disorders, blood loss due to cuts or crashes, kidney failure, cancer such as leukemia cancer or other blood cancers, low blood counts.

Getting a blood transfusion can be pretty serious although complications and death from blood transfusions are very rare.

Most people who do get blood transfusions come out of it just fine with no problems or complications.

Blood transfusions can cause problems later in life such as infection and malignancy, renal failure, stroke and an increased risk of death.

The problems listed from blood transfusions showing up later in life are rare though.

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