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Sudden significant, difficult to control nasal bleeding
Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) | Last Active: Jul 15 12:11pm | Replies (21)Comment receiving replies
I'm so sorry for what you're going through, and for the agonizing uncertainty. My 81 year-old husband started having copious nosebleeds (no history) in mid-2022. Maybe an average of once per month. An urgent care visit resulted in a cauterization of some kind and taking Afrin home with us. It worked well for a long time. No bleeding. Then last fall 2023 he started getting a severe headache (he's not a headache person AT ALL) that grew more painful over about a week, and the nosebleed situation came back with it. We figured it was time for the ER. They saw a nasal mass in one of their scans. After consulting with an ENT surgeon the next week (the result of an ER referral), a biopsy was done shortly after and the result was a malignancy, either a carcinoma or sarcoma, (it was never determined for sure). Scans showed no spread. In December the tumor was cleanly removed endoscopically (through the nostril, no cutting) in a long operation by that same ENT and a neurosurgeon standing by. The location of the tumor was close to the brain. It all went very well, with a one-week stay in the ICU to watch for spinal fluid leaks. My husband is now in his final week of chemoradiation (once per week), and we won't know for about 3 months from now (summer 2024) if there is any cancer remaining, when they do all the scans again. Chemo has been more or less tolerable; the radiation has caused more of the discomfort to the targeted area, but compared to many others he has fared well. That's a lot of detail just to tell you that going to the ER was ABSOLUTELY the key to finding and treating his problem, which started as copious, unpredictable nosebleeds, followed by a debilitating headache. I send my encouragement!
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I just tried sending a rather lengthy response but it didn't work, so I'm going to attempt to do so by DIVIDING it and sending each section SEPARATELY. HOPE IT WORKS!!!
Here's Part A....
A belated thank you for your having made time to write to me about your husband's experience. I "lost" your post and found it difficult to locate, and was delighted when I found it this morning! I experienced yet ANOTHER nose bleed episode on April 5th. I wrote about it within another response here.
You are fortunate to have great emergency services. We live in a desirable area of Westchester County but the ER department of a hospital just 14 minutes or so from our home FAILED ME MISERABLY. Not only was I left alone in a corner along a heavy trafficked passageway, but I had the misfortune of having an obviously inexperienced, insecure (and yes, inept) PA be assigned to "attend" to me. He would disappear for up to about 15 minutes or so at a time, spoke in a way to low-voice within the din in that ER, but also did not ask ANY questions about my situation or my medical history! I had to call out for help when I began to gag and warm blood rushed out my mouth up blood along with clots onto a towel. Not one glance in my direction! I took a deep breath after puking up blood (with blood rushing out the left nostril and down back of the throat) and YELLED "I need help!!" Only then did someone who was not a nurse place a plastic basin in my lap (and another towel), but then took off! I had to call out in a LOUD voice to the nurse sitting behind the desk, who was tapping away in front of her computer. She did not come over but did glance (looking a bit annoyed) in my direction. "Where is the PA assigned to me?" I loudly asked. A bevy of staff walking past me and down the corridor to my right obscured the nurse and the nurses station. Finally a nurse (I presumed she was nurse or possibly a NP) came and took my vitals, then she also disappeared. I continued gagging on the warm flow of blood down my throat. I gagged blood into the basin, along with nasty blobs of blood clots. I was so scared! I had NEVER had nose bleeds in my 7 and a half decades of life, and no one appeared at all concerned that a senior was in the condition that I was in....FINALLY the errant PA came and told me he was going to insert "something" in my nostrils (yes both, not just the gushing left one) to stop the bleeding. No explanations, no questions about any medical info/situation that he should be apprised. ¡NADA! All I clung to were his words "...to stop the bleeding..." so I was prepared to be cooperative, but NOT prepared at all for the excruciating pain the he inflicted while SHOVING a nasty object into my right nostril. It hurt!! I yelled out "You're hurting me!" but he continued, even as I moved my head and entire body AWAY from him. "Stop!" I demanded, but he didn't, so I screamed "STOP ALREADY!" He finally did so, then disappeared again! My one consoling thought was that he was hopefully getting advice/direction from one of the ER doctors. I continued gagging and bringing up blood and clots, with not one medical personnel coming near me, not one staff member at all interested. My husband had not been allowed into the ER for whatever inane reason so I had NO ONE to advocate on my behalf. I felt so alone, and damned scared.
----------------Part B to follow--------------