What a weird experience! I can only think of 2 or 3 times that my nose has really bled, but today was a gusher! It also came without warning.

I walked into the bathroom to get ready for work. All of a sudden I saw a blood drop. I thought nothing of it and grabbed a piece of toilet paper. Occasional nose bleeds are commonplace for me. I've spent too many years taking medication like Guafinex and other things for my incessant allergies, but this was different.

I noticed the blood drops growing and shoved a big piece of toilet paper up my nose. Within a minute it was drenched. That's when I knew I had a problem. So moved over to the sink. When I pulled out the toilet paper, there was this tidal wave of blood pouring out of my nose. I grabbed some more and tried again and again to wait it out. After five minutes, the sink was covered in blood. It was quite eerie looking and pretty too. I was starting to feel steady streams of blood go down my throat too.

Now I remember as kid getting lessons on how to stop a nose bleed. One, method was leaning your head back. But I later learned that was wrong. The second method was to press your finger in the location where you often sneeze. I did that most of the time that I was gushing. So obviously that didn't help. Course, there was also the tissue paper which obviously wasn't helping.

So I shoved up a huge wad of paper, washed my hands and headed over to the computer. I typed in my title and got this page on nose bleeds. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, my toilet paper was saturated. I quickly read something about pressure pointing at the "tip of the nose". I went back to the sink and tried that. It didn't help!

However, it did say lean forward and wait it out. Oh! And it mentioned ice packing the bridge of the nose. Twenty minutes later it began to slow at last. Meanwhile, I passed the time icing and cleaning up the puddles of blood.

What caused my nose bleed?

This same situation has happened before. For me, it had to do with caffeine. I drank an espresso for breakfast to wake me up. I'm guessing that got my blood pumping a wee bit faster which was one of the reasons for the gushing.

I don't think that was the only reason though. I also took a Tylenol to manage some shoulder pain. Upon reading the Family Doctor page, asprin stops blood clotting. So I believe that the Tylenol combined with the caffeine got my blood pumping and NOT clotting.

How to Stop a Nose Bleed

After the blood slowed down enough, I went back to the Family Doctor site and figured out my errors. So here's what I will do in the future.

1. To quote Hitcherhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "Don't Panic!"
2. Lean forward with you head above your heart
3. Pinch the main part of the nose. (see a picture)
4. Add an ice pack to the bridge of the nose.
5. Try to relax (again, "Don't panic") and patiently wait five, ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes until it finally stops bleeding.

I must admit this an extra freaky experience for me. Hopefully, I'll remember better how to stop a nose bleed next time it happens. Especially since I wrote about it. :)

Good luck and Happy Bleeding!