I’ve had trouble with nosebleeds for most of my life. Since I was diagnosed with atrial fibrilation, it’s been more of a problem because the mitigation for a-fib is blood thinners which make stopping nosebleeds extra difficult.

This nosebleed started from nothing in the morning and was still going into the night.

About 1:00am, I got sick of it and went to the emergency room. They tried a few things and told me a lot of things that I already knew. They eventually brought out the big gun – the rhino rocket. A nurse friend of ours told me about this. It’s basically an inflatable tampon about 4-5 inches long that they shove down your sinus. They leave it there for a couple of days and hope that the bleeding has stopped when they deflate and remove it.

It was a very slow nosebleed. If I tilted my head back, it would seem to stop, but I’d just get a big wad of blood and snot at the back of my throat that I’d have to spit out.

They shoved the “nampon” into my sinus and inflated it. Gotta say that it felt like either the nampon or my sinus was going to pop. When they saw more blood coming out, they inflated it some more. This was repeated a few more times with the pain getting more intense. By the time that the bleeding finally stopped, I had the worst sinus headache ever and it felt like that side of my upper and lower jaw had a toothache.

I was told to leave it there for a couple of days and maybe take some Tylenol if the pain was a problem.

The pain was a problem and I took some sick days until they took the nampon out.

As I stayed at home, waiting for the time when they’d take out the rhino rocket, one of our neighbors stopped by. She wanted to drop off some cookies as a thank you for dog sitting Lucci a little while ago. She was looking down, managing Lucci, as she came through the door. When she looked up at me, she saw my face and said “Oh my God! What happened to you?”

I guess she noticed the tube sticking out of my nose and the tape holding the rest of the tube out of the way to my cheek.

The emergency meeting room folks suggested that we get an ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) specialist to remove the nampon. Pam scheduled an appointment for Thursday morning.

Thursday couldn’t get there soon enough. As soon as the doctor saw me, he knew what was up. In Naples, there are a lot of old folks on blood thinners and most of them get nosebleeds. He said that I was a bit of a spring chicken for that kind of problem (bless him) but he sees a lot of rhino rockets.

He then asked me how long it’d been since I last took blood thinners. What? I told him that I took it that morning.

Apparently, the fine folks at the emergency room were supposed to tell me to lay off the blood thinners until after the nampon had been removed.

“Well, this is disappointing” I thought. Actually, I was thinking much darker thoughts about having to wait until Monday morning with this gosh darn thing stuck up my nose. <naughty word>! <naughty word> to <other naughty word>!

We scheduled another appointment. Their office would contact my cardiologist’s office to get his blessings for skipping the blood thinners. I was gonna wait patiently for the nampon to be removed.

<naughty word>

On Monday, they deflated and removed the nampon. It was a pretty sick feeling as it slid out, but at least it was quick.

A few drops of blood came out but that was because the sinus was still pretty raw from the nampon.

I got a lecture about some new and improved nasal sprays to use and how to resume my blood thinning regimen.

A little while later, I had a nice dry nose.

I was also scared spitless about touching my nose and causing another nosebleed. I’m sure I’ll get over it.