Bleeding after 6 week pp pap exam? (possible tmi warning)

[Surprised26]

Yesterday I had my 6 week check up, and after coming home, noticed a few spots of blood on my panties, then today I've had enough blood to completely fill two pads and every time I go the the bathroom, blood just seems to pour into the toilet. Bright red and a lot thinner than period blood. I stopped my postnatal bleeding at 4 weeks so I definitely wasn't expecting any more blood. The reason I'm not contributing the blood to a period is that it would be odd timing. The PAP exam seems to have triggered the bleeding. Should I been worried? Or is this normal after childbirth? I've already decided that if it hasn't slowed by monday that I'm calling my OB. Just wanting some reassurance...

 

[MindUtopia]

Bleeding up to about 6 weeks or so pp is completely normal, and you can have red bleeding come back around 4-6 weeks, especially if you do too much. I would imagine that the pap caused irritation that's made the bleeding start up again. I can't actually even imagine wanting to do an exam so soon after birth or why your doctor did. That sounds awful and would have been really painful for me. I am high risk because of previous pre-cancerous cells and even I waited until about 3 months pp for my next one. So I'm guessing it's just the pap that's caused the bleeding to start up again. I had really heavy bleeding after one once (like enough to soak completely through my jeans by the time I drove home from the doctor) and this was before I was even pregnant. If it doesn't stop in a couple days though, it's worth maybe getting it checked, especially if you start to feel any pain or get flu-like symptoms as that can be a sign of a uterine infection (unlikely, but poking around down there could always stir something up or introduce bacteria when you weren't entirely healed yet).