Wow! We had quite the day yesterday! Let me start by saying I love my children with all my heart! They are truly an inspiration to me.
Yesterday, however I was willing to sell one of them to the gypsies.
Yesterday we had a gooey-a-thon.
Lou Lou has a problem with the dry fall air. It makes her nose itch. So to relieve this particular problem she sticks her finger up there. Which inevitably leads to blood. The great thing about Lou Lou and blood is that she likes to share it. And it doesn't have to be shared with a person, it can be shared with carpet, walls, clothes, you know whatever is around. One of the really fun ways she chooses to share it to blow blood out of her nose at a high speed, and to aim it at whatever unsuspecting person happens to be trying to help her to stop bleeding. This of course leaves said person looking like they have just stepped out of a zombie movie.
Anyway, we were trying to help with the problem, and possibly put a stop to it, so we took her to the doctor yesterday. (Thank heaven for the Kids Care that is open on Sunday.) We made an appointment, and were in the waiting room watching a movie when one of the offending nose "geysers" occurred. I quickly yelled at the top of my lungs to whoever might be around "Shes gushing blood"! (Which technically she was not, at least not like she was 15 minutes earlier when we decided to take her in.) The problem was not the quantity of blood, but that I had nothing on me to help stop the flow, not even a Kleenex. Several people came out and helped me lay her down and gave me something to soak it up. I carried her into a room, and Emanhaud and I explained the problem. Now keep in mind this is probably her tenth bloody nose in the last four days. Some of them were small, like the one she had in church earlier the same day. And some were "geysers" like the one to come. The doctor told us there were several options. The first he suggested was packing her nose with cotton balls soaked in cocaine.... yes that's right COCAINE! We joked and said she was already keyed up, and he said it wouldn't be enough to make her worse. He made several more suggestions, including cauterizing the nose.
This is my autistic child that is incredibly strong for a 50 lb child. It took four of us just to keep her on the table long enough for the doctor to look at her nose. We mulled over our options and decided to go with whatever the doctor thought would work, this was done in about one and a half seconds. After we papoose wrapped her it was discovered that they did not in fact have the supplies to do what they wanted to. The doctor decided to try cauterizing it. This is done by sticking a wooden stick with silver nitrate on the end up her nose...
YEAH RIGHT!
We held her down, me holding the chest, Emanhaud holding the legs, a nurse holding the head, and the doctor holding the stick. Well he sticks that thing up there and the thing that you would expect to happen when you put a stick up someones nose happens. It begins to gush, in a way that I have only ever seen in movies. The funny thing is, he has a second stick in his hand and he sticks that one in there too. By this time she is howling mad, literally! So the second stick goes in, and it changes from a stream to a raging river of blood. Plus while this is happening she is trying to blow the thing out of her nose full force. So the doctor, Emanhaud, and I all look like we have been sprayed with blood...
oh wait we were!
At this point the doctor looks at us and says there is nothing he can do further and we need to go to the ER. We bundle her up and put her in the back seat with her head in Dads lap, and head up to the hospital. A twenty minute
drive away. Which of course means that it stopped bleeding on the way. We get to the ER, and check in and the doctor comes in, this all happened in about 15 minutes. The doc looks at her and says there is nothing he can do for us...
wait...
REALLY!
So apparently you cannot cauterize something that is not bleeding...
They gave us some info about nose bleeds, and sent us packing. We were there for maybe about 30 minutes.
We got in the car, very frustrated, and I said to Emanhaud, she will be bleeding again within an hour. Needless to say I was right!
The funniest thing is that to top it all off durring dinner last night after everything had calmed down. The very same child slid backward through a dining room chair and got her head stuck in it.
How can you not laugh at that.
5 comments:
Wow! It's a good thing you have a great sense of humor!!
Yeah Sarah you deserve a gold star for sure. I can identify somewhat with you and nose bleeds. I had them for a time and it was so disgusting and i went through the stick thing a number of times but one day after going through the procedure it started up again and this time he rolled in what I call a welding machine. I could hear it sizzling in there but it hasn't done it since then. That was a few years ago. Of course your situation was really different bless your heart.
This is exactly why I'm losing faith in the health care system. Dumb doctors. There must be something they can do!
I'm guessing this is the reason Shane called about a humidfier yesterday? Hopefully that helps!
When I worked at the hospital, the patients' noses would get dried out due to the oxygen being blown directly into their noses. This may sound odd or perhaps gross, but we put regular KY Jelly in their noses since it's water based and wouldn't have an adverse reaction with the oxygen. Works well.
You can not say you live a dull life! Good thing you have a sense of humor!
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