How do you deal with seeing someone that's always tough and strong in a weakened state? When you suddenly become the caretaker to someone that has always taken care of you? It's hard and it's scary and apparently I don't deal so well.
During my dad's shower that evening he got a bloody nose that just did not want to stop. Ice was held to it, toilet paper, the head held back, head hung over the sink for a while….everything. But to an avail, it just kept running. We were getting worried and thinking that maybe we needed to take him to the hospital for some help to stop it, but finally after several hours it stopped. I wouldn't put it past my dad that he had just been picking his nose, but that definitely wasn't the case! It just started and stopped out of nowhere.
Later that night, or actually very early the next morning my dad woke up with a throat full of blood that had pooled while he was asleep. After a rage of coughing the wads of paper towels began to keep the blood at bay. It slowed but never really stopped until after I left for work. Dad obviously wasn't able to carpool into work with me that morning like we usually do and my mom was planning to stay home to keep an eye on him, but the bloody nose receded and he seemed to be doing ok she went ahead and went in. The plan was to call every hour and check on him. I spoke with my mom around noon and she said that he had been reading a book all morning and doing fine. Just sitting up and not moving much to try and not stir things up. We figured everything was fine. Dad said he was doing ok and we figured we were good to go.
I got off work and arrived home just before 4pm. I took my time and changed into some comfortable loungewear and then realized I hadn't seen my dad yet. I noticed the back bathroom was open and noise was coming from it. I took a peak through the doorway and found my dad hanging over the sink with blood soaking his beard and mustache, spitting up blood and a steady flow coming through his nose as he tried to hold an ice pack to it. He looked so weak and terrible, barely seeming like he could hold himself up. The floor had his clothes and rags on it soaked in his blood and the overall image was pretty disturbing to me. Who thought a bloody nose could go so bad?! I get them all the time, no biggie. But this was getting scary!
I told dad that we had to go to the hospital, that he was losing too much blood. I asked him how he felt, if his head felt strange or anything and he kind of shrugged it off and acted like nothing was that bad. But just from that I could tell he wasn't feeling well. He had lost so much blood and it was coming in such a heavy flow that it was going down his throat causing him to have to keep spitting it up as well. I called my mom and told her we were going to the Emergency Room. She was just getting off work and said she'd meet us there. I gathered some towels, an ice chest and some snacks for my mom in case her blood sugar got low. I got my dad out to the car and I was trying to stay calm as I watched him just sitting there barely able to talk just spitting blood into a towel. It was really scary to me and making the decision to take my dad to the hospital is one that I didn't want to make. But it was really the only option at this point. As I was racing off to the hospital as if I had a pregnant lady next to me and I was the soon to be dad, my dad was able to tell me that I should slow down. Hahaaa… he at least was doing well enough to know I was speeding! We got to the hospital in record time, maybe race car driving should be a new hobby for me. My mom had already signed my dad in and they immediately checked his vitals to assure he was ok. His blood pressure was high from the stress obviously which didn't help to slow the blood flow down. We then waited until a Doctor was available and my heart was trying to calm down.
We were finally called into a room where the Doctor began explaining how he planned to stop it from running. By using some sort of concoction of powders and my dad blowing his nose really hard to get all the clots out, they'd be able to spray it with something and seal it with the special concoction. As he was explaining this to my dad, my mom was sitting in a chair facing my dad's hospital bed, the Doctor was facing him as well and I was leaning on a wall just behind my mom. That's when I began to feel an overwhelming sickness invade my head and stomach. The feeling made my head spin and my stomach was squeezing in on itself. My breathing got harder and I couldn't deal with the sickness in my stomach anymore. My body felt like it was caving in on itself and my head was getting way too heavy for my neck to support. I started to slide down the wall because my legs didn't feel like they had any muscle in them to hold me up. That's when I went down! The cool floor felt so nice on my suddenly sweaty body, it was just me and the cold floor. It felt so lovely in comparison to my too weak legs trying to hold me up and the nasty feeling in my stomach. Everything was gone for a second and then I heard my dad ask my mom "what's wrong with Amber, why is she on the ground?" He was the only one facing me and had saw me laying on the ground. Then I was being picked up by a nurse and Doctor and put into a hospital bed that was right outside my dad's room. I didn't know what was happening but I couldn't control it. The room was spinning, I was crying for no reason and I couldn't stop shaking and was drenched in sweat. I think it was the adrenaline and the fact that it scared me and I guess I just don't deal with that type of stress so well. The Doctor went and got me a piece of cake, it was absolute torture, but I managed to eat it. A wet rag for my forehead, some milk and a cup of water. It took a while for the crying to stop, just a strange reaction of mine but I was starting to feel better. The Doctor thought my blood sugar had gotten low from the spike of adrenaline and the cake seemed to help. So my mom kept going back and forth to check on my dad and then me outside of his room. The whole thing was pretty embarrassing. My dad was the patient, not me! They had even asked my mom if I needed to be checked in and she told them I just needed to calm down and would be fine. It was entertaining I guess, although I had been planning on relaxing that evening and I definitely didn't get to do that. Finally when we were both given the ok to go, the question was brought up of which patient would drive which patient home? Hahahaa.. I drove of course! But it seemed like such a ridiculous scenario. So yeah, that's my story of what happened. Dad's good now and it hasn't happened again. We believe that he had too much aspirin in his system and it was thinning his blood. He recently had knee surgery and the pain has been cumbersome so that's been helping. But it's Tylenol from here on out baby, no more bloody noses for him!
During my dad's shower that evening he got a bloody nose that just did not want to stop. Ice was held to it, toilet paper, the head held back, head hung over the sink for a while….everything. But to an avail, it just kept running. We were getting worried and thinking that maybe we needed to take him to the hospital for some help to stop it, but finally after several hours it stopped. I wouldn't put it past my dad that he had just been picking his nose, but that definitely wasn't the case! It just started and stopped out of nowhere.
Later that night, or actually very early the next morning my dad woke up with a throat full of blood that had pooled while he was asleep. After a rage of coughing the wads of paper towels began to keep the blood at bay. It slowed but never really stopped until after I left for work. Dad obviously wasn't able to carpool into work with me that morning like we usually do and my mom was planning to stay home to keep an eye on him, but the bloody nose receded and he seemed to be doing ok she went ahead and went in. The plan was to call every hour and check on him. I spoke with my mom around noon and she said that he had been reading a book all morning and doing fine. Just sitting up and not moving much to try and not stir things up. We figured everything was fine. Dad said he was doing ok and we figured we were good to go.
I got off work and arrived home just before 4pm. I took my time and changed into some comfortable loungewear and then realized I hadn't seen my dad yet. I noticed the back bathroom was open and noise was coming from it. I took a peak through the doorway and found my dad hanging over the sink with blood soaking his beard and mustache, spitting up blood and a steady flow coming through his nose as he tried to hold an ice pack to it. He looked so weak and terrible, barely seeming like he could hold himself up. The floor had his clothes and rags on it soaked in his blood and the overall image was pretty disturbing to me. Who thought a bloody nose could go so bad?! I get them all the time, no biggie. But this was getting scary!
I told dad that we had to go to the hospital, that he was losing too much blood. I asked him how he felt, if his head felt strange or anything and he kind of shrugged it off and acted like nothing was that bad. But just from that I could tell he wasn't feeling well. He had lost so much blood and it was coming in such a heavy flow that it was going down his throat causing him to have to keep spitting it up as well. I called my mom and told her we were going to the Emergency Room. She was just getting off work and said she'd meet us there. I gathered some towels, an ice chest and some snacks for my mom in case her blood sugar got low. I got my dad out to the car and I was trying to stay calm as I watched him just sitting there barely able to talk just spitting blood into a towel. It was really scary to me and making the decision to take my dad to the hospital is one that I didn't want to make. But it was really the only option at this point. As I was racing off to the hospital as if I had a pregnant lady next to me and I was the soon to be dad, my dad was able to tell me that I should slow down. Hahaaa… he at least was doing well enough to know I was speeding! We got to the hospital in record time, maybe race car driving should be a new hobby for me. My mom had already signed my dad in and they immediately checked his vitals to assure he was ok. His blood pressure was high from the stress obviously which didn't help to slow the blood flow down. We then waited until a Doctor was available and my heart was trying to calm down.
We were finally called into a room where the Doctor began explaining how he planned to stop it from running. By using some sort of concoction of powders and my dad blowing his nose really hard to get all the clots out, they'd be able to spray it with something and seal it with the special concoction. As he was explaining this to my dad, my mom was sitting in a chair facing my dad's hospital bed, the Doctor was facing him as well and I was leaning on a wall just behind my mom. That's when I began to feel an overwhelming sickness invade my head and stomach. The feeling made my head spin and my stomach was squeezing in on itself. My breathing got harder and I couldn't deal with the sickness in my stomach anymore. My body felt like it was caving in on itself and my head was getting way too heavy for my neck to support. I started to slide down the wall because my legs didn't feel like they had any muscle in them to hold me up. That's when I went down! The cool floor felt so nice on my suddenly sweaty body, it was just me and the cold floor. It felt so lovely in comparison to my too weak legs trying to hold me up and the nasty feeling in my stomach. Everything was gone for a second and then I heard my dad ask my mom "what's wrong with Amber, why is she on the ground?" He was the only one facing me and had saw me laying on the ground. Then I was being picked up by a nurse and Doctor and put into a hospital bed that was right outside my dad's room. I didn't know what was happening but I couldn't control it. The room was spinning, I was crying for no reason and I couldn't stop shaking and was drenched in sweat. I think it was the adrenaline and the fact that it scared me and I guess I just don't deal with that type of stress so well. The Doctor went and got me a piece of cake, it was absolute torture, but I managed to eat it. A wet rag for my forehead, some milk and a cup of water. It took a while for the crying to stop, just a strange reaction of mine but I was starting to feel better. The Doctor thought my blood sugar had gotten low from the spike of adrenaline and the cake seemed to help. So my mom kept going back and forth to check on my dad and then me outside of his room. The whole thing was pretty embarrassing. My dad was the patient, not me! They had even asked my mom if I needed to be checked in and she told them I just needed to calm down and would be fine. It was entertaining I guess, although I had been planning on relaxing that evening and I definitely didn't get to do that. Finally when we were both given the ok to go, the question was brought up of which patient would drive which patient home? Hahahaa.. I drove of course! But it seemed like such a ridiculous scenario. So yeah, that's my story of what happened. Dad's good now and it hasn't happened again. We believe that he had too much aspirin in his system and it was thinning his blood. He recently had knee surgery and the pain has been cumbersome so that's been helping. But it's Tylenol from here on out baby, no more bloody noses for him!
