Followers of this blog will be aware of the increasingly annoying nosebleeds that I have been having. Since last Sunday, I have had five of them. The cause is probably American central heating – “blown air”. Rather than toasty warm water-filled radiators (useful for drying laundry) in England, the system works like an enormous centralized fan heater, blowing hot air out through ducts in the ceiling and sucking air back from floor level. The result of this is a very dry atmosphere in the house, which can make the inside of one’s nose very sensitive.
There is a fringe benefit in the case of a new house – the dryness helps to suck residual dampness of of the newly built wall. In our case, we have had a dehumidifier running almost constantly for months in the basement storage rooms to achieve this. Now, with all the cold weather, the heating system is doing a much more powerful job of drying out.
As also reported previously, the second round of lock-in because of ice and snow on our driveway has meant that we have been unable to get a car up to Porter Springs Road (which has been pretty clear most of the time)0. Our attempts on Friday (with thoughts of a shopping trip) were a failure. On Sunday 1st March, things came to a head. Nosebleed number 6 started, and it was a real gusher. After about two hours, we recognized that the time for serious action was called for, so Lisa tried to drive out, preparatory to the local Emergency Room. No success, she couldn’t get much further than Friday’s sticking point. At this stage we called for help – Tom down the road, who has been such a mainstay of support in so many ways
Tom drove over on his four wheel drive vehicle, and went up and down the driveway a couple of times to clear the surface of loose ice and snow. He then did a little snow shoveling in critical areas. Meanwhile, yours truly remained in the bathroom gushing blood. Trying to stem the flow by pinching my nostrils resulted in mouthfuls of gunky bloody mucus, which was no real improvement. Finally, when the flow seemed to have slowed down a little, we made a dash for freedom – Lisa successfully drove up the driveway, and we headed for the local hospital.
The emergency room was, thankfully, not very busy on a Sunday afternoon. In the fifteen minutes waiting to be attended, I also made a bloody mess of the restroom – it shocked even the nurse. My nose was packed with gauze stuff to stop the gusher, suction clearance of other nostril attempted, and I was put onto antibiotics just in case of any infections that might arise.
On Wednesday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to go 25 miles to Gainesville to see an ENT doctor. He removed the nasal packing (which had successfully stopped the bleeding), and then stuck a camera up my nose to identify the small blood vessel which had been problem. Application to the guilty spot of silver nitrate (which rapidly reacts to create nitric acid plus what I assume is a silver scum) = chemical cauterizing. Sorry if this is too much graphic detail! I have been given strict instructions on not bending over, exertion (including any massive weights over 10 lbs) or sneezing (so, how do you stop yourself sneezing?). So far, by the weekend, there has been no recurrence of the problem, and I have been taking things very easy. Lisa has been a tower of strength.
All the snow had gone by Monday night, as if the fates had just been playing a cruel jest upon us. Officially, 1st March is the start of “meteorological Spring” and next Sunday is the start of Daylight Saving time. So maybe we will see some more seasonable weather.