Well, yesterday I was minding my own business, walking into a grocery store, when with no warning, my nose started bleeding. Not the usual drip, drip thing, but like a faucet -- steady stream of obviously arterial red blood. I bolted back to the car. A nice lady had just parked nearby, and taking one look at me, offered to call an ambulance. I graciously, but very foolishly, declined and drove the five miles home.
Upon arrival at home, the hand towel I had grabbed was totally sodden, and my clothes and car interior looked like I'd been shot.
Wife immediately rushed me to ER (which was only 1/2 mile from the grocery store...). And now her car looks like someone got shot in it. I walked in, and before I could even groan at the thought of waiting hours because of the huge crowd, the intake lady, taking one look, said with no fanfare at all, "sir, come with me now." They didn't even mention an insurance card -- that's what really scared me.
In the treatment room, I found myself getting an IV on one side (took a couple tries, I guess my veins were collapsing), and on the other, getting suction in my mouth and nose. About this time, I started getting really lightheaded, dizzy, and my vision began tunneling. Not good at all.
The doc ended up jamming a long balloon-like device into my nose, then inflating it to seal off the blood flow. The sensation seemed akin to having a railroad spike stuffed up your nose, to the head. A day later, the end of the contraption is sticking out of my nose, taped to my face, and I'm taking Lortab to ease the spike-in-head "sensation". Going to the ENT tomorrow morning to get it out and see if I need further treatment.
LESSON: I'd heard of posterior nosebleeds before, but never given them much thought. If any of you ever get one (indicators that distinguish from a "garden variety" bleed are volume of blood, and that much of it will end up going down into your mouth -- yuk), GET MEDICAL HELP AT ONCE! If it doesn't stop, and they often don't, you can bleed to death. The doc suggested I had less than an hour before mine would have gone critical. Lesson learned!
Enjoy being around for the holiday!
Upon arrival at home, the hand towel I had grabbed was totally sodden, and my clothes and car interior looked like I'd been shot.
Wife immediately rushed me to ER (which was only 1/2 mile from the grocery store...). And now her car looks like someone got shot in it. I walked in, and before I could even groan at the thought of waiting hours because of the huge crowd, the intake lady, taking one look, said with no fanfare at all, "sir, come with me now." They didn't even mention an insurance card -- that's what really scared me.
In the treatment room, I found myself getting an IV on one side (took a couple tries, I guess my veins were collapsing), and on the other, getting suction in my mouth and nose. About this time, I started getting really lightheaded, dizzy, and my vision began tunneling. Not good at all.
The doc ended up jamming a long balloon-like device into my nose, then inflating it to seal off the blood flow. The sensation seemed akin to having a railroad spike stuffed up your nose, to the head. A day later, the end of the contraption is sticking out of my nose, taped to my face, and I'm taking Lortab to ease the spike-in-head "sensation". Going to the ENT tomorrow morning to get it out and see if I need further treatment.
LESSON: I'd heard of posterior nosebleeds before, but never given them much thought. If any of you ever get one (indicators that distinguish from a "garden variety" bleed are volume of blood, and that much of it will end up going down into your mouth -- yuk), GET MEDICAL HELP AT ONCE! If it doesn't stop, and they often don't, you can bleed to death. The doc suggested I had less than an hour before mine would have gone critical. Lesson learned!
Enjoy being around for the holiday!
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