Two Saturday’s ago, I woke up in the middle of my sleep because a coughing fit was coming up. I sat up and coughed hard (as usual) but then my nose started to bleed. I figured sooner or later it was going to bleed because it felt dry all through the day (I’m pretty sure from the dry oxygen that shoots up my nose 24/7). My nose bleeds usually last 10 minutes and then I can go on with my day, but this one was different. The blood was thin and flowed pretty fast! I woke my dad up and called the nurse. After 10 minutes, my nose did not stop bleeding! I became pretty worried and scared. I continued to hold my nose but not tilt it back because the blood would then run into back of my throat and I would choke or swallow it.
After 30 minutes that sucker kept flowing with ease! The nurse had to bring me a big bucket to catch the blood and hold my dirty tissues; we even used regular towels since the paper towel were too thin. An hour later we finally called my doctor (it was about 2 am) and he pretty much said to do everything I already was doing and he ordered a “packing” (Styrofoam looking plug) for my nose. Since it didn’t stop bleeding the nurse had to call the ER specialist, but that chick didn’t help much either, except she gave me an ice pack. I was extremely worried and scared! My room was packed with nurses, my dad and ER specialist, and I needed to stay calm. I almost did have a small panic attack though because my dad couldn’t get a hold of my mom and the nurses were making me super nervous. The respiratory therapist had to turn off my oxygen so I was basically breathing on room air. The nurses were holding an ice pack to my nose as I pinched it, and the other nurse checked my blood pressure. Luckily, my blood pressure was okay, but my oxygen was not. I started to cry a bit too, I have never seen so much blood in my life…and it was MY blood. The only thing I could think of was to pray. I prayed and prayed as we sat there clamping my bloody nose. I may be dramatic but I think any one in my shoes would be scared too, especially if they were spitting out blood from their mouth and nose. As I prayed I felt a bit calmer. When the nurse put the “packing” in my nose, she put it too far up past the area where the bleeding came from. Then she put a second one because the first was already to far up my nose. There is a reason things shouldn’t go up the nostrils….because it HURTS! My head had so much pressure from the packing and the blood that couldn’t flow anymore. I felt as if my head would look like an “air heads” commercial.
After it stopped bleeding the nurses stayed a little while longer to make sure I wasn’t dizzy and then they left. I felt some relief and so I turned off the light and tried to sleep anyways. BUT lucky me….the blood clot in my nose fell to the back of my throat and I had to spit it up, which then cause the whole shin-dig to happen AGAIN! So the nurses came back and I put the towels to cover my nose and ice pack to my forehead. After an hour and a half, it stopped and in the morning the ENT specialist (Ear, Nose, and Throat) came to see me.
The bleeding might have been from nasal polyps which are inflamed sacks in the nostril and obstructs breathing and when it bleeds…it BLEEDS. I thought the ENT was going to burn the polyps so that it would stop bleeding, but instead he used a suction tool to take out the blood clots. The suction tool was painful and I couldn’t breathe. I was squeezing my moms hand and tried not to move my head. The ENT kept going and got all the junk out, but the bleeding would not stop. The ENT then had to put a “tampon” like thingy in my nose to stop the bleeding. My throat felt like fire, my head felt like it was going to burst, and my nose was sore.
I took some Tylenol and tried to sleep for the rest of the day, seeing how I was up all night. By far that was the worst day during this hospital stay.