Dramatic Entrances are my Forte (today, at least)

Hey, you! Yeah, you! What are *you* up to today? Because I think, for once, I might have you beat.

I just finished up washing blood stains out of my pant legs from my emergency trip to the OR today. 

Did I win? Did I? Did I?

Here's the skinny:

I haven't written on the blog for a very long time, mainly because I haven't felt like we've had much exciting happen around here. Of course, we had the puppies. I should probably post something about that. But aside from little four-legged fuzzballs, our life here in Roosevelt has seemed rather mundane. So, sorry. But now I have something fun to tell you about!

Over the past year or so, I've developed allergies to,well, basically everything. They progressed to the point that they were keeping me up at night and we went to an allergist. The prescribed treatment was immunotherapy allergy shots or drops, but those suckers are expensive! So we decided to try some preventative measures to see if we could get them under control. 

Two weeks ago I went in to see the allergist again because I still wasn't sleeping through the night and I started having daily nosebleeds, most likely from complications with the allergies. He cauterized my nose and gave me an allergy prescription, and talked me into doing the immunotherapy. The hubs and I weighed pros and cons and prices, and decided to go with the drops. 

So I got a call from them this morning telling me that the drops were ready. I stopped in, and mentioned that the doc had told me I could come in and get my nose cauterized again if it was still bleeding. They found a way to squeeze me in, and that's when all mayhem broke loose. 

He took a look, and very frustratedly said it was still bleeding from the same place, and that he wouldn't charge me to do it again. He started to cauterize my nose, then suddenly said something along the lines of "oh!" and said that he found the source of my nose bleeds. Suddenly I could taste blood. An artery in my nose burst open!

The doctor handed me a giant handful of gauze, and said we were going to the OR. No time to even grab my purse! On our way there, the doc was hauling nurses along to help and explaining what had happened, and what they were about to do. 

As we walk into the OR, he announces "I need . I just caused a nosebleed!" Meanwhile, I'm standing there next to him with bloody tissues all over. Talk about your dramatic entrances!

They set me into a room and he went off trekking through the OR trying to find all of the equipment he needed. He popped back in with two nurses, a machine, and a giant syringe. The next 5 minutes were filled with numbing nose shots (NOT pleasant), gushing blood, a pink kidney tray, and lots of gauze. They got a cover for my lap, but not before my pants had already taken a hit. Hence, my aforementioned laundry escapades. 

Then, they attach a diode to my stomach, and say I needed to be grounded for the procedure because it's an electrical tool that they use to stop the bleeding. That sounds totally safe, right? I think I might have heard "I think it's on A, but I'm not sure." "Well, we're about to find out." Yikes?

The nurses already look very concerned, and keep saying things like "that's a tough patient" and repeatedly "are you alright?", which makes me nervous, because if the nurses look worried I start to wonder if I should be. Then suddenly, I start shaking. The doctor stops what he's doing and asks if I'm okay. I said something like "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just shaking. It must be adrenaline." then he tells me there's epinephrine in the numbing stuff. Shaking explained.  

So now I'm gushing, staining, tasting, swallowing, burning, numbing and shaking. In short, I feel great. During my time there, I felt electrical currents in my nose (weird), and left marks on my hand from clenching a fist during the injections. At one point, the doctor actually squirted the syringe into the air, just like you see in the movies. That... actually was kinda awesome. 

He finished up the procedure, and the slightly less worried-looking nurses handed me another giant wad of gauze, and we headed back to the allergist's office to get my stuff. I ducked into the bathroom and realized I totally looked like a murder scene (or a crazed vampire?) walking through the hospital halls. Which is hilarious to me. So I cleaned up, said goodbye to the nurses, and made my way home, not entirely too much worse for the wear, but with a great new story to tell!

So, that was my morning. How was yours? ha! 

I start up the allergy drops tonight- I'll do a followup post in a couple of months to let you know if it starts helping!