What a bloody week!
I get reflective at New Year as I guess many people do. Agonising over the past year and wondering what juggernaut is coming to mow you down in the next. Little did I know that 2014 was going to be a red letter year. Blood red.
On New Year's Day I had a nosebleed. Nothing new in that. Like headaches, I have them occasionally. I am one stressed oddball. It was about 9pm just as "Sherlock" was starting, which was inconvenient because it was necessary to have all one's wits to follow his resurrection, yet I was concentrating on stemming a red tide. It wasn't that bad though, just a few minutes.
Next day it was back to work after 12 days away. I had another one and this was more inconvenient. I was in the toilets, becubicled, with my trousers around my ankles when it started. Yes, there was lots of toilet roll available but I had trouble pulling my trousers up with one hand so I could get out to the sinks. Again though, a normal few minute one.
Enter Friday 3rd January. About 3.30 pm I sneezed and spattered blood all over the partition screen of my desk. I was slower to the toilet than Usian Bolt but not much. Bending over the sink, bloodied paper towels all around and a solicitous "Are you alright" from visitors to the men's room. Word soon got around and after about 30 minutes the ladies decided to storm the gentlemen's bastion. Or rather the first-aid lady did. Ice was tried but didn't work either. Send for the ambulance!
When they got there Niagara was still flowing but the paras had some efficient plugs, until one fell out when they were getting me into this wheeled chair contraption. I think it had stopped by the time we were down in the ambulance. I can tell you it is embarrassing to have to go to hospital in one just for a nosebleed, not least because they wanted to know my age which was a closely guarded secret which even Indiana Jones wouldn't discover.
My blood pressure was high - I saw 165 on the monitor but they didn't tell me the readings - but my ECG was OK. (I like to think I am a guy with a good heart anyway.)
At the hospital it was, of course, all stop. Triage was within an hour I think but I didn't see a doctor until over 4 hours after the nosebleed started. There was nothing to do. They took my BP again and cauterised my nose, although I am certain it was the wrong nostril. I tried to say so but was told that they could see where the bleed was from.
So armed with a letter to my GP I had to get back to London Bridge station by what I think turned out to be an illegal taxi. Certainly there were no markings on it but it had responded to a call from another taxi I had approached but which was already booked.
End of story? Oh no. At noon the next day I had another so I rang NHS Direct which is an experience in itself. I am holding my nose over the sink with tissue stuffed up my nose and being asked twenty questions by someone who couldn't understand what I was saying. I could feel my BP getting higher. By far the most genius question was "Do you think the amount of blood you have lost would fill an average size mug?". How the hell do I know. I am pinching my nostrils to stop the blood coming out.
Anyway, they arrange for an outpatient's appointment for me at my local hospital. I was surprised to say the least it being a Saturday. The appointment was a couple of hours away though, or it was, but when I got there they were 90 minutes behind so I had to go home and come back. That doctor didn't take my BP I don't think but prescribed some cream to put up my nose. Rushing to the chemist before it closed was not conducive to lowering my BP and then the chemist could only fill half the prescription.
Now we get to some medical conflict. At the hospital on the Friday I was given a leaflet advising what to do in nosebleed situations. Head forward and pinching I knew. Do not pick the nose or put anything up it was common sense. No hot drinks for 24 hours was a shock - more later.
Friday - don't put anything up your nose. Saturday - put this cream up your nose twice a day. Let the prevailing advice prevail. I put the stuff up my nose. At 11 pm I had another nosebleed. This time NHS direct got a doctor to ring me back although by that time it had stopped. Once she had the full picture she told me not to by shy of ringing the hospital if one went over 20 or 30 minutes.
Sunday. I was due to go out to get a new microwave has mine had waved microing goodbye. Just as I was about to leave I got another one. this just lasted about 30 minutes so I just left it. Then at 10pm I had another. hen it got to 35 minutes I dialled 999 for the first time in my life. The operator had to refer my request before I was told one had been dispatched. By the time the para got there it had stopped so he just took my BP and made some notes. He advised me that unless it was actually gushing out I could wait up to an hour for it to stop next time. He had never heard of the cream I had been told to snort.
I made it to Monday with no more mishaps. I needed to get into my GP but to try and get through on the phone first thing on a Monday was as easy as Baldrick getting a first at Oxford and Cambridge at the same time. I knew what I had to do. The surgery opens at 8 am and you had to be first in the queue. I took a chance on walking it, hoping the cold would prevent another bleed. I got there at 7.40 am and was first but only just as a car pulled up in front of the surgery as I got there. By the time it opened there were about ten people behind me.
I had a book with me to while away the long wait but fortunately I got an 8.30 am slot. The doctor took my BP - which was still high - and read the letter. He put me down for blood tests and also a 24 hour BP monitoring. Eager to get this sorted I informed him of my Axa PPP status but he said we were still in the general practice area. Also, he knew about the nose cream and told me to use it and he also agreed an hour could be waited before seeking medical help.
NOTHING UP THE NOSE. CREAM UP THE NOSE. 20 MINUTES. 30 MINUTES. 60 MINUTES.
Do you want 50/50, ask the audience or phone a friend?
Fortunately, I have had no bleeds since then, touch wood - he said patting himself on the head. The blood tests were done this Friday, a week after the initial eruption, and the BP monitoring is not until 29th January.
The thing is so I am told, is that high BP does not create a nosebleed but it makes it worse because of the higher pressure. Therefore it is not the nosebleed per se that is being investigated but the BP. Now, in August 2013 I was off work with stress but conversely my BP was OK. In December after a nose infection it was higher around 140 and the doctor told me to go back in a month for a check-up. Two weeks later it was 163 / 165 and the highest 178 over 105 to 110. I struggle to understand what happened since August to make my blood boil so. Yet I am told it can be accumulative rather than one thing.
So the two cuplrits could be Manchester United foe their abject performances that leave me climbing the walls and YOU!. Metaphorically speaking that is. "YOU" meaning my non adoring public, staying away in droves from buying my very cheap books which I sweated blood on.
The year has only just started and I am already under pressure. And it could get worse. England may not win the World Cup.
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