Post #697357 by khan_tiki_mon on Thu, Oct 24, 2013 8:30 AM

I had a nasty nosebleed a few years ago. I wrote the following on December 1st 2007.

Wednesday morning I woke up and Karen said it seemed too cold in the house. The furnace was on and blowing but it was blowing cold air. The temperature in the house was down to 58. I was in the basement checking on the furnace when my nose started bleeding. It just started bleeding. First it was just the left nostril but then the second one started as well. I don't have normal blood anymore. My blood looks like colored water. That's because of the blood thinner I take. I couldn't get my nose to stop bleeding. After two and a half hours of bleeding Karen called Dr. Rajan-George and she said I should go to urgent care.

I went to urgent care in Dewitt. This was the same urgent care where I went when I had my heart attack. It is very close to my house. They put a salve in my nose that acts as a nasal constrictor and they packed my nose, both nostrils. They packed my nose with long pieces of a guaze like material. I thought it was kind of unpleasant, which is funny looking back on it now. I didn't know what was yet to come. They said if it started bleeding again I would need to go to the emergency room. I went home and waited for the furnace repair guy to come. I waited bundled up on the couch as the temp dropped down to 56. My nose was still bleeding and I was starting to feel pretty miserable. The furnace repairman came and it turned out we needed a limit control switch and he got the furnace working. I went to the emergency room at St. Joes.

I got there about 3:30 PM. I told Karen not to come right away, there didn't seem to be any point. She went to visit Katie at University Hospital and then came to see me when she left Katie. I think she got there just before 10:00 PM and they still hadn't seen me. When you first come into the emergency room you see a triage nurse almost immediately. I think the purpose of that is to determine just how long you can stand to wait. I was feeling pretty miserable. The blood was dripping down the back of my throat. It was making me sick to my stomach. After Karen got there they took us to a room.

The doctor said he was going to repack my nose but with something more heavy duty. He said a name for it but I don't remember what it was. While he was going to get ready the nurse said it was kind of like a Tampon for your nose. Well the doctor came back with this 6 inch long tube soaking in a plastic cup filled with some kind of liquid. I thought they must put it in your nose and then cut off the excess. Nope. Once he started I realized he was going to shove that whole thing up my nose and up into my sinus cavity. As he was pushing it into my head I kept thinking there must be something he wants to know and if he would just ask I would gladly tell him anything he wanted to know. But there was no deal to be made that entire thing got shoved up my nose.

Then there was a tube dangling from the inserted part and he put a syringe on the end and inflated the thing in my nose and sinus. That was a lot of fun. There was a good deal of miscommunication. I was in a lot of pain with this thing that seemed way too big shoved up my nose. The doctor said it had it to stay in for half an hour and then he would come back to check on it. I thought that meant he was going to take it out when he came back. No such luck. I was supposed to go back to see a doctor on Friday to have the packing removed. They sent us home about midnight. I spent an absolutely miserable night. I could not lie down. As soon as I reclined past a certain point the blood would pool in my throat and I would start gagging. I was in a lot of distress and I didn't feel I could make it until Friday. Karen got me an appointment to see Dr. Alfaro-Franco, my cardiologist, at 2:00 PM on Thursday.

I was a mess. I hadn't slept, I hadn't eaten, my stomach was full of blood. Dr. Alfaro-Franco told me to stop the Plavix and she said I needed to go back to the emergency room. They didn't have an ENT doctor at St. Joes so she sent me to University Hospital. I got a room at University Hospital much quicker than I did at St. Joes. The nurse was very nice. She was starting the IV and that's when things went bad. She stuck me once and couldn't get the blood flash. She tried a second time, no luck. I think it was difficult because I was so dehydrated. She tried again and I passed out. My blood pressure had taken a precipitous drop. I came to and heard her on the intercom calling the doctor, yes it was kind of an emergency she said. I felt very strange and very scared. I felt like I was becoming detached from my body. My body was letting me down and I was losing control. I felt all at once that I was going to throw-up, my bladder was going to release, my vision was blurred, and I felt warm flashes coursing through my body. It was actually scarier than anything I felt when I had the heart attack.

The nurse said I was never in any danger and I'm sure she was correct but it was an experience I would just as soon skip in the future. The nurse got an IV established and got some fluids into me and I bounced back. The doctor was there now and they laid me back. I was afraid I would start gagging but the bleeding had finally stopped. I slept on the bed in the hospital. The doctor decided the best course of action at this point was to leave the packings in place. He felt that if the bleeding had stopped it was best to leave well enough alone and he decided to leave everything in place until Monday. It is amazing how your body can adapt. By this point the packing that was so painful the first night was now tolerable. I've been sleeping a lot. I try to get some fluids in me to stay hydrated. I have not been very hungry and I've been losing weight. I am scheduled now to get the packings out of my nose on Monday afternoon. If all goes well I should be back to as normal as I was before this incident.

The ER nurse at University Hospital said she used to be a nurse in the cardio cath lab and she said I need to get back on the Plavix as soon as possible. She said, "you guys always end up back in the cath lab." I am very much looking forward to getting back to my old self.