I have always been able to keep my head and cope well with emergency situations, and have for many years hunted alone, at times for three or four days, in some remote areas. But somethingh happened to me last night, sitting in my den in a recliner watching TV of all places, that has me thinking, "what if I had been alone, many miles from medical assistance?"
I have never been prone to nose bleeds. But as I was sitting idly, doing absolutely nothing, the front of my shirt was suddenly spattered with blood, lots of blood, streaming from my nose. I immediately went to the kitchen, leaving a trail of blood on the floor, to soak a cloth with cold water and applied a nose pinch. In a few moments I was swallowing blood, and spitting out a spray as I tried to awaken my wife. I sat down, tilted my head back, as I had been taught to do, maintaining my pinch on the bridge of my nose, and had to abandon that position because of the volume of blood I was swallowing. My throat got irritated by the blood and coughing. After about ten minutes it had not abated at all. The blood seemed to be coming from very high up inside my nose, out of range of a nose pinch. My wife is two weeks off a knee repalcement and can't drive, so I set out alone for the emergency room. This is where I almost panicked, wondering if the blood loss was enough to get dizzy or lose consciousness while driving. In retrospect, a 911 call would have been more appropriate. It was a typical weekend emergency room scene, and by the time a doctor looked at me, I had been bleeding for nearly an hour without any signs of it abating at all. I had soaked my shirt, my pants, several hospital towels, and my gray beard was full of blood. They tried everything that I had already done, with no better result. They finally got it stopped by inserting a balloon-like device and inflating it, compressing the inside of my nose with packing. I never had any pain during all this time, until the packing was inserted and inflated, then it got really interesting. I am spending Independence day with a nose full of packing and a tube taped to my face, which has prevented me from fully getting the dried blood out of my beard. My wife's Loritabs are helping me rest. I am to return to the emergency room tonight to have the packing removed.
My thoughts have turned to how I would, or could, have handled this in a remote area. It begins to get scary when all that you know and have been told suddenly doesn't work. What bothers me most is that I had done absolutely nothing to cause this. No nose-blowing, no impact, nothing.
I have never been prone to nose bleeds. But as I was sitting idly, doing absolutely nothing, the front of my shirt was suddenly spattered with blood, lots of blood, streaming from my nose. I immediately went to the kitchen, leaving a trail of blood on the floor, to soak a cloth with cold water and applied a nose pinch. In a few moments I was swallowing blood, and spitting out a spray as I tried to awaken my wife. I sat down, tilted my head back, as I had been taught to do, maintaining my pinch on the bridge of my nose, and had to abandon that position because of the volume of blood I was swallowing. My throat got irritated by the blood and coughing. After about ten minutes it had not abated at all. The blood seemed to be coming from very high up inside my nose, out of range of a nose pinch. My wife is two weeks off a knee repalcement and can't drive, so I set out alone for the emergency room. This is where I almost panicked, wondering if the blood loss was enough to get dizzy or lose consciousness while driving. In retrospect, a 911 call would have been more appropriate. It was a typical weekend emergency room scene, and by the time a doctor looked at me, I had been bleeding for nearly an hour without any signs of it abating at all. I had soaked my shirt, my pants, several hospital towels, and my gray beard was full of blood. They tried everything that I had already done, with no better result. They finally got it stopped by inserting a balloon-like device and inflating it, compressing the inside of my nose with packing. I never had any pain during all this time, until the packing was inserted and inflated, then it got really interesting. I am spending Independence day with a nose full of packing and a tube taped to my face, which has prevented me from fully getting the dried blood out of my beard. My wife's Loritabs are helping me rest. I am to return to the emergency room tonight to have the packing removed.
My thoughts have turned to how I would, or could, have handled this in a remote area. It begins to get scary when all that you know and have been told suddenly doesn't work. What bothers me most is that I had done absolutely nothing to cause this. No nose-blowing, no impact, nothing.
