TheBanyanTree: Back at work

[Monique Colver]

Here I am, back at work after a long weekend, and I feel a bit
sniffly. This concerns me as the last time I felt a bit sniffly was on
Thursday afternoon, as I was preparing to leave work for the day and
go celebrate the beginning of a glorious three day weekend. "How odd,"
I thought, "my nose is runny," and I asked the royal consort for the
Zyrtec.

Then I noticed my runny nose was runny with blood, a quite unusual
thing for me. So unusual, I can't remember ever having blood pouring
out my nose before. I know it happens frequently to people (other
people) and it's no big deal, but I'm rather opposed to the concept,
if not in theory, at least in actual fact. And it wasn't dripping a
few drops of blood, no, it quickly became a raging river of blood.
There was much confusion at first, as I said, "What the hell?" Or,
more appropriately, mumbled, "Wha the he?" through a wad of tissue
stuffed up against my nose.

I sat and pinched my nose closed. Twenty minutes later we called the
nurse hotline to ask, "How do we stop this flow of blood?" She told us
to pinch it closed for 20 minutes, then another 10 if that wasn't
sufficient, and to call back if that didn't work.

It didn't work. We called back and got put on interminable hold. It's
not like I was going anywhere anyway. By then I'd missed happy hour.
We called back. By the time we talked to an actual person it'd been
close to 2 hours since this had started, and the bleeding was not
slowing down. I had blood in my throat, and I was pretty damn tired. I
really wanted to lay down and take a nap, blood or no blood, but that
apparently wasn't an option.

So off we went to the ER, where over an hour later, maybe it was an
hour and a half, I couldn't really tell time much anymore, the
bleeding was stopped by methods I wish never to experience again.
Let's just leave it at that.

Then they told me my blood pressure had been abnormally high, 177 over
104 or some such, and the pressure valve that is more commonly known
as my nose popped off. The valve popped off, not the nose. The nose is
still intact.

Now I'm back at work because it's Monday and I feel a bit of a runny
nose. It had better not be blood. Think I'll go take my blood
pressure, just to be sure. Oh yes, I now have my very own blood
pressure monitor.

Time for some changes around here.

Monique