I’m sitting in the emergency room with a bloody tissue, an annoyed barefooted husband and a sheepish look on my face.
This was last week after the worst blood nose I’ve ever had.
And for the record - the obstetrician sent me there.
It was a normal Thursday and I was at my desk minding my own business (probably work avoiding) and I felt that warm drip you just know is more than a runny nose.
It wasn’t a big surprise as I’d had a minor nose bleed the day before, so I grabbed a tissue and headed for the bathroom.
Two hours later, I was still crouching at the bowl feeling pretty sorry for myself.
Whenever I stood up, my mouth filled with blood.
A kind colleague looked after me and put in a call to my obstetrician on my behalf.
He was away, so his receptionist put me on to another doctor, who happened to be doing surgery that day at a nearby hospital.
He said nose bleeds were common for pregnant women (something to do with mucus membranes and hormones) but if it wasn’t stopping it needed to be checked out.
I was to come by the emergency department and ask them to call upstairs and he’d come and see me.
I called my husband, who was home with a migraine, to come and get me.
Not realising he’d be taking me to the hospital, he didn’t change out of his old trackies or put on shoes.
Now I’m not sure whether the OB was busy delivering another woman’s bundle of joy, or if the hospital staff didn’t make the call straight away, but I ended up sitting on an emergency bed for nearly three hours.
My nose had stopped bleeding, so I was feeling pretty stupid while I waited for the attending doctor to plaster some poor sod’s leg.
I was utterly famished from blood loss and lack of lunch, so I sheepishly asked a nurse if I could go.
She said I had to wait for the doctor, but found a box of sandwiches for me and was somewhat incredulous when I meekly voiced concern that there was deli meat (one of the pregnancy no-no’s) in all of the sandwiches.
She’s eaten deli meat in all of her pregnancies and it had been fine apparently.
I was so hungry I didn’t argue.
When the attending doctor came to see me, he said the obstetrician I had spoken to did not work here, but he’d call him anyway.
He quickly returned and was clearly surprised when the obstetrician did turn out to be at the hospital.
Within 10 minutes of that phone call, the OB was down to see me and referred me to a specialist, which made me feel slightly less silly.
And touch wood – I haven’t had a blood nose since.