Hi does anyone know how long blood transfusions stay in your body for? Didn't realise until yesterday that when I had my first op to remove my large bowel(life saving) they gave me blood not sure how much. Looked at the patient sheet for first one and its ticked but its not on the latest sheet. They mentioned it to me before op(1st one) but never this time.
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Blood transfusion
- Thread starter CheerBear12
- Start date
PsychoJane
Moderator
Why are you trying to know how long it stays for? Curiosity?
Yeah
PsychoJane
Moderator
Well, I don't know if there are other processes that are happening within the body that could make the lifespan of the cell change but the normal red cells generally lives for about 120 days roughly. So I would believe that after 4 months, you should not have remaining of the donor blood but I might be wrong.
Thanks just curious 
nogutsnoglory
Moderator
I would imagine it depends if you lose blood too. If you lose blood through stool or additional surgery that would affect how long it will last.
I did lose loads of blood but that was coz of bowel being in such a state could of burst at anytime which would of killed me. I probs wouldn't have survived it without the op and blood transfusion.That was a yr and a half ago and just had my second op to make it permanent but didn't need blood this time. It will be out of my body now
My sister had two transfusions after surgery