I never had trouble with nosebleeds as a kid in England. That changed when I moved to North America when I was 10. It was December when we moved and I started getting nosebleeds. They blamed the dry winter air since I had never been in subfreezing weather before.

At one point, a nosebleed lasted 3 days and they took me to a doctor. The doctor coated a q-tip with Vaseline and shoved it up my nose.

I’ve never sneezed so violently.

When I opened my eyes, I could see drops of my blood on everything – including the ceiling. I was told later that the doctor had to close up shop to sterilize himself and his examination room.

Over the years, the nosebleeds became less of an issue although they were back for a while after my cardiologist put me on blood thinners.

Recently I’d been getting over a cold, and was blowing my nose a lot. I saw some trace of blood in the tissues and was trying to avoid a full-tilt nosebleed.

Didn’t work.Eventually, the blood started flowing and I was making trips between the bathroom to clean up and the den to try to get some work done.

I soon had to worry about a meeting so I packed some Kleenex into the bleeding nostril and was grateful that my work meetings were mostly audio only.

Except.

This was a team building meeting. some of the higher ups were worried that my 4 coworkers and I were just 5 individuals instead of a team. Daheck? This time our manager wants us to each announce our favorite thing and to turn on our laptop cameras while we did it.

I couldn’t think of a good excuse for not using the camera, so I gave them the truth. “I’m in the middle of a nosebleed and I’ve got a bloody Kleenex hanging from my nose.”

Most of the responses were along the lines of “I didn’t want to see him before, but I’ve got to now” as you might expect.

We’re supposed to have more team building meetings. I’m hoping that I have less of a show for them.