A lil dab will do ya…

I still believe that polygamy (as it has been exposed in Texas), is wrong. To force women into marriage, motherhood, and to live isolated from the world… is wrong.  But, if we take polygamy out of the big picture and focus solely on the rest, what OTHER groups within the U.S. fall victim to investigation? (First thing I thought about, as far as living isolated from the world, are the Amish. Although, most Amish do not force their people to do anything… are they intentionally isolating themselves for the betterment of their society or to keep society from knowing the truth?  And, if we go poking our noses into the private (totally legal) lives of citizens who live in isolated groups such as these, are we infringing on THEIR constitutional rights to privacy, religion, speech, etc?  Yes.  Unless a crime has been committed.  For instance, there are independent and fringe-religious groups that do not believe in the use of conventional medicine.  Instead, they pray over their sick and ailing.  Usually, this results in death as was the most recent case of a young Diabetic girl who was prayed over until she died, then and only then did they call for help (thinking she would come back to life).

My mother always says, “God is the creator of everything.”  If you believe that, then you must believe that God created the men and women who invented and improved medical technologies, medicines, and doctors/nurses/specialists.  Therefore, God created medical assistance.

So, when these independent and fringe-religious groups deny their loved ones (children, in particular) medical attention, they are denying their children the “gifts” from God.  So, who’s sinning?  Is the child who is believed to have sinned (and therefore is being punished by suffering from illness or disease) or are the parents sinning by not providing God-created medical care to their children?

I know, it’s a stretch, but you have to admit that it’s a plausible argument.

Anyway…

I got #3 son up from bed, and he was sitting on my bed watching television while I attempted to rid myself of “BAD HAIR” today.  He said, “Mommy? I need a tissue.”

I thought he wanted to blow his nose, since he’s been congested and sniffly for days (due to allergies or some cold that the doctor will not give him medicine for)… when his nose started to GUSH blood.

I mean… moving river of blood, but not a tidal wave, began to pour out of his little nose.

I grabbed some tissues, pinched his nose, and carried him to the countertop by my sink.  I went through 1/2 a box of tissues before it slowed enough to glob neosporin on a q-tip and swab the inside of his nose.  Usually, neosporin does the tric.  Today, it didn’t work.  Finally, after nearly 30 minutes of bleeding, it stopped.  In the meantime, I’m trying to pinch his nose with tissues, keep his head forward, glob neosporin on a Q-tip, and call my husband who had left the house 15 minutes before the bleeding began.

I called his school, said that I might bring him to school late depending upon his nose.  By 8:50, it looked as though he could go.

He was standing by the stairs, while I was helping him put on his jacket, when the nose bleed began again.  I grabbed him and headed upstairs to my room where there were more bloody tissues and Q-tips.  I called the doctor (it’s unusual for him to get TWO in an hour, mostly in the spring he gets a nose bleed because his nose gets dry, etc).  I was instructed to shoot one spray of Afrin up each nostril (didn’t matter that it was for super strength sinus congestion either) and apply pressure and an ice pack (something I couldn’t get in the bedroom).

Ok.  Now I had to FIND the Afrin.  My oldest son was using Afrin to deal with allergy congestion that kept him up at night.  I went into his room, leaving a scared 4 year old pinching his own nose with a bundle of tissues while sitting on the countertop of my vanity area.  Couldn’t find the Afrin.  Went up to the linen closet.  NOTHING.  Kitchen.  NOPE.  Medicine cabinet.  EMPTY.  Then, I went back into the linen closet and found it hidden between Benedryll and an older bottle of Swimmers Ear (removes water after swimming).

When I got back into my bedroom, the little one was still sitting on the countertop (don’t worry, there was no place for him to fall because it’s tucked in a cubby of the wall… and he’s tall enough to jump off and not fall for hours)… pinching his nose… complaining that the tissue kept going into his mouth.

I carefully took the tissue away from his face and quickly blasted one shot of Afrin in both nostrils and then returned the tissue to his nose.

The doctor said that if it did not STOP bleeding (or occurred again today), that I would have to bring him to the emergency room to have his nose packed.

Packed? Oh GOD no…

When I was 12, my brother whacked me on the nose w/ a  wiffleball bat.  My nose bled profusely for an hour. (We both had bleeding disorders. He was a hemophiliac and I had a different clotting disorder.) I went to bed only after it had stopped bleeding only to wake up gasping for air around 3 am or so.  When I woke up, I was laying in a pool of blood that had begun to dry over my nose and mouth.  When I saw it, I began to scream (loudly)… and since I shared a bedroom wall with my parents, there was no fear that they couldn’t hear me.

I was taken to the hospital later that morning and examined.  It was determined that I would need my nose packed.  I freaked OUT.  Much like nowadays, I do NOT like (or let) people touch my nose.  Two nurses grabbed my arms and held me back because I began to kick and cry.  I kicked a nurse, slapped the other nurse JUST the doctor began to move closer to me with these metal thingies that held this unusually LONG piece of vaseline-covered gause.

Let’s just put it this way… I was NOT happy.  I ended up kicking the doctor in the whose-ee-whats-it (hard), and when he fell back and leaned over to breathe, another two nurses came into the room and tried to tether me down.  All the while, I was screaming and kicking and flailing because… well… it FUCKING hurt.  They were (sorry if this grosses you out) scraping out the OLD clot and it felt like razor blades dragging inside of my nose.  Then, the doctor had to literally JAM this long gause thing UP my nose and into the far reaches of my sinus cavity.  By the time he was done packing my nose, I had flopped off of the table and threw up all over the floor.

In the meantime, my mother stood in the corner of the room, horrified.   (Not at me, mind you, because my brother used to get HORRIFIC nosebleeds, but at the medical staff who was trying to manhandle me into this human pretzel knot, instead of trying to calm me down… or even DRUG me, which would’ve been MUCH nicer.)  She flipped out at the doctor… because I was JUST a kid and they manhandled me so much. (Looking back, I can’t blame them for wanting to tie me to the wall. I was REALLY kicking and punching and screaming because I did not WANT anything that big stuffed into my nose. NO way, no how!)

For two weeks I had to stay home from school.  That year was particularly a rough one for me.  First the knee (contusion), then the nose (wiffleball bat), then later on, my tonsils.  It was one crazy-ass year and it’s a miracle they let me finish that year.

During my 2 weeks home, I remember sitting on my mother’s green plastic-coated couch with decorative wood carved knobs atop of the armrests and watching the Iranian hostages come home.

By the way, since I’ve had my nose packed (and husband when he broke his nose in his early 20s), they’ve created something called a Nasal Tampon:

Inclusive of a STRING to remove it.  IF it’s anything like a REAL tampon, getting it out may be a BIT harder than putting it IN.  And, uh, it’s uber-gross on a stick AND extremely nasty.  How do you MARKET that? And, would a man (secure or not) want something cottony on a string jammed up his nose?  I think NOT.

There are FEW things that weird me out… but a nasal tampon is DEFINITELY one of them…

However, I don’t think we need to do that because his nose has been blood-free for about 2-1/2 hours. (*knocks on wood*)

Ugh… And, to think, today I was going to go food shopping (the first REAL one in weeks) and hit the store for more tissues and papertowels (we’re running down to almost empty).  I guess it’ll have to wait until after dinner when my husband will be home to stare at the kid’s nose, hoping and waiting for nothing to happen.