Glamour Shot

In case you miss this fabulous picture on the next cover of Vogue magazine I thought I should post it online. This is evidence of my trip to the emergency room. This week I started getting really bad nose bleeds that would take a very long time to stop. On Thursday night as I was going to bed I had a bad one that I couldn't stop for an hour. Brian patiently stayed up with me past midnight handing me tissues and washing my hands, before we got it under control. That one really scared me and so Bri talked me into calling the OB-GYN the next day. Dr. Froerer had the day off so another nurse called me and told me to come into the office so that she could check my blood pressure. I went in and everything seemed fine. Dr. Terry told me to pinch my nose tightly by the clock for ten minutes and if it hadn't stopped to go into the emergency room.

Well, Friday night as I was getting ready for bed another nosebleed started. I have to say that these weren't your run of the mill nosebleeds. These were so bad that blood would be coming out both nostrils and my mouth at the same time and I would spit out big clots of blood. Gross, I know, but true. 30 minutes later I still couldn't get this one to stop and so even though it was after midnight we called Brian's dad and he came over quickly to stay with the boys while we went to the emergency room.

I've learned that if you're bleeding a lot they get you in pretty quickly. Granted that it was nearly one in the morning, but we didn't really have to wait long at all. It turned out that I was having an arterial nosebleed and the doctor called it "a pumper." I guess usually if you have a nosebleed it's just from a vein and it will ooze, but this one was a bit more intense. She used silver nitrate to cauterize the area where the bleeding was taking place and then she packed me nose with something really wonderful which she referred to as a "nose tampon," and it's been every bit as nice as it sounds. I can't wait until I get to have it taken out on Monday. Needless to say I've spent the weekend at home trying to get some sleep which is easier said than done because I feel so congested. So here is my new fabulous look. . .