Recurrent nosebleed

I visited an ENT specialist this morning. After cauterization, my nose now still hurts a little bit and it is still running. However, today, I feel so relieved, secure & grateful because now, after the visit, I know that I am fine.

I have been dealing with this nosebleed for almost 3 months. The first times I noticed blood on my tissue, I was really shocked. That morning, I was not blowing my nose hard at all, but on my tissue, there was something slightly red. I hoped it was some kind of ketchup but I knew I was not using any ketchup at all. Nor was I wearing lipstick. But I didn't want to believe it was blood and tried to scrutinize those stains. Yet on blowing my nose again, I saw more blood. Never before had I had such nosebleed. Through researching on nosebleed online, I felt even more worried. Nosebleed could be caused by many reasons, often because the vessels in our nose are fragile and they can be easily cracked. Usually nosebleed is not serious, but it should be checked to make sure that was not the sign of other disease like the early sign of tumor or even cancer. That was scary. I was worried, and the info I read online started to disturb my peace of mind. But then I just reassured myself that my nosebleed was caused by the most common reasons - dry and cold weather, which did make sense since I just came here. However, day by day, nosebleed became such an obsession. Whenever I had a runny nose, I got to look at the tissue and check for any blood. I hoped it soon went away, but to my disappointment, it kept coming back and even came more often. Almost every morning, in the fluid from my nose lied a trickle of blood. 

Nosebleed was not something to welcome at all, especially when I was already undergoing a tremendous amount of stress and worries. Most of them were about my health... Just in less than 3 months, I have been to such a long list of doctors, from dermatologist (for skin, hair and the terrible breakouts of itchy pimples all over the face and the back), dentists (to remove wisdom tooth), optometrist (for blurred vision), cardiologist (for palpitations which even reached 120 bpm when I stood, and 170 when I ran )... Appointments with doctors waited in lines and I had to see doctors almost every week, go to pharmacy so often... That's why I did not want to talk to anyone or answer honestly whenever they asked me "khoẻ không". Some might take it personally when I kept quiet, but I just did not want to answer that I was not fine at all and was worried about my health more than ever :(. That was not to say some other stories related to health that I gave much thought about... Just say, I was so stressed and tired that I did not want to go to one more doctor to check the nose. It cast such a shadow on me but I had to set aside that nosebleed and wait until I was finished with the other doctors and after taking my driving test. I also wanted to give time for it to go away, and hoped I wouldn't have to go to the doctor's. My friends here also confirmed that maybe it was just because of the dry weather.

However these recent weeks, I continued to see blood in mucus every morning, coming together with headache. Doing exercise helped me feel better but didn't swipe the nosebleed away. I even tried to keep myself warm in blanket when I slept or woke up, but it didn't help at all. So, we made an appointment with doctor from early this week. This morning, I went to the doctor in hope that everything was OK and I wanted to feel secure.

Treatment

This morning was the first time I was pleased with medical service in US. I had told myself maybe they would ask me to go to lab or take pictures or wait for sth else, then I had to visit the doctor again, it would took for 1, 2, or 3 weeks or kinda. Last time when I had my heart check, I had to visit the office for many weeks. If you live here, you would know how time-consuming everything is here. But this morning, everything was done fast and professionally. The doctor could speak Vietnamese, did all the checkup, nasal endoscopy, and cauterization, all in office and it did not take much time. He was also very kind.

More details about the nosebleed treatment. After finishing all his examination, the doctor turned on the screen with pictures and told me about my nose. It was a little nervous sitting down and listening to the result. He said, when he had a look into my nose, he saw a large vulnerable blood vessel in the right nostril, which caused the bleeding.  To make sure there was nothing serious inside the nose, he also performed the nasal endoscopy (my husband told me he saw such a long stick with camera penetrating deep into my nose hic). From the examination, he said I was OK, which was so good to know, I was just waiting for that very word. So, the doctor suggested "burning" the vessel that cause the bleeding. & the burning (cauterization) was done right after that. He told me this cauterization was done for even five-year-old children, so it would not hurt !! ^^ (But now after the anesthetic has worn off, it does hurt a little, but I know I'm fine, and that's good to feel more secure! :)

Causes

I've learned from the doctor today something interesting and helpful, it is new to me. I already know dry weather causes the nose to bleed, but what more I've learned today is, "dry" doesn't necessarily means "cold & dry", it could also be HOT & dry =) When the doctor said I shouldn't take a lot of hot shower, I was so surprised, but now I understand, hot & dry is also the reason. This also explains why these days, so afraid that dry and cold weather would cause my nosebleed, I even covered the blanket over my nose to keep warm but it still did not help, the nosebleed even came stronger. :)

 

Home treatment & Prevention

According to the doctor, it takes about one week for the cauterized vessel to really heal. And I now need to use "moisturizer" for the nose. Doctor recommended me the NasoGEL for dry noses. He also said, such nosebleed can also go away if we drink a lot of water, and use some kind of nose lubricant to prevent the nose from getting dry.

I have to shut down my laptop now. I may modify this entry later, and someday I'll definitely write something about the dry climate here, which has caused me a lot of troubles since I came here. Not only did I have to use the right body lotion, facial moisturizer, chapstick like many has warned me, I also have to use eye cream for eyes getting a lot of wrinkles more than ever, eye drop for watery eyes, and now added to the list was "moisturizer" for my dry nose.

But today I'm happy to know I'm going out of the shadow cast by that recurrent nosebleed.