Warning: the following post is gross. Please take caution before reading.
What started as my nighttime routine last Thursday night became a nightmare. After brushing my teeth and tending to my sinuses with a saline wash, I was ready for bed. It was about eight-thirty. It’s normal for my nose to bleed a little after washing it, but it usually stops soon. This night was different. It wouldn’t stop and before I knew it I was bleeding like a stuck hog.
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| Photo by Tobias Lindman; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode |
I tried to deal with it for a couple hours. I applied pressure for 10 minutes. Then again for another ten minutes. Then for twenty. Still bleeding. I packed it with gauze, but it just soaked through.
It was eleven o’clock when Christi went to bed. A little while later she came to check on me. I was bleeding as bad or worse. I was expecting to get platelets the next afternoon, but I couldn’t deal with this for another twelve hours or longer.
Christi wanted me to go to the ER, but I was hesitant at first. Finally I started getting concerned and relented. She called a friend and woke them up. Soon he was at the house to get me, saving us from having the rustle the girls from their midnight slumber (thank you again dear friends).
A Long Night
What ensued at the ER was a miserable experience. The staff was great. My nurse was kind, a runner like me, and very concerned and attentive. The nurse immediately put a clamp (kind of like a potato chip bag clip) on my nose to apply pressure. It kept me from bleeding out my nose, but now the blood was pooling inside my sinuses and draining down my throat. The doctor packed one nostril with an absorbent gauze tube and pumped air into it to create pressure.
I spent the next six hours sitting on a bed with a pan between my legs spitting up blood. We had to change out the pan seven or eight times. Over the course of the night the blood in my mouth began to eat away at the outer layers of cells on my tongue and throat. It takes a few days for your taste buds to grow back, which is probably why my Egg McMuffin didn’t taste quite right this morning.
To complicate things, my blood pressure was very high and was making the bleeding worse. I was treated for that and, of all things, high potassium. The doctor talked about admitting me, to which I flatly refused, not entertaining any thought of it.
The platelets finally arrived a few hours later. The infusion was nearly complete an hour later, but I was still bleeding. Just as the bag emptied, I realized I hadn’t spit up any blood in a few minutes. I withheld my jubilation a little while. Finally, after about eight hours, the bleeding stopped.
When the platelets were finished, I was released and arrived home about six am, just in time for morning quiet time and the first pot of coffee.
A Brighter Day
I had platelets again today, this time under very different circumstances. For the first time in months, I was able to drive myself. It was just a few miles to the hospital, but this is a very positive step. I’m not ready to venture any farther yet, but that will come.
It’s interesting how my blood is a source of trouble, pain, and suffering. It is a source of disease—something good meant to sustain life that has been corrupted by the enemy to bring evil.
This is why we need Jesus’ blood. My blood kills, but His blood heals. My blood brings death; His blood brings victory. His brings redemption and forgiveness. He spilled much more blood on the Cross than I did that night in the ER. The blood he spilled covers me, so despite my troubles, I have life in Him.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. (Ephesians 1:7, ESV)
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