Seeing Red

Dear Lila,

The weather was crazy this week. It was 55 degrees and cold on Monday (you wore a winter hat and gloves to school in the morning) and then it swung up to 90 degrees yesterday. We didn't even stay out that long after school yesterday because it was so hot but I wonder if the extreme temperature change contributed to the EPIC nosebleed you got.

I am still learning that as a mom, there will always be something new with my kids that I've never encountered before. You and your brother have gotten nosebleeds here and there over the years and they have never been a big deal. A little blood trickles out, we grab some tissues and that's it. Your nosebleed yesterday was NOTHING like that. After we got home, I went upstairs with your brothers and you stayed downstairs to read on the foyer bench. You called out for me but I was in the middle of changing out of my sweaty tank top so I said I'd be down in a minute. You started whimpering, though, so I got concerned and ran over to the top of the stairs (with no shirt on and covering by chest with my arms). I looked down the staircase and saw that the front of your shirt was entirely covered in blood! Daddy was in his office so I screamed for him to go to you and I ran back to my room to throw on a shirt. You had just been sitting and reading so I don't know why your nose suddenly started bleeding but it was bleeding so much and it didn't stop for nearly five minutes. We put ice on it and went through an entire roll of paper towels but the blood kept coming. It was all over your front and you kept looking up, so it kept dribbling into your mouth, which I know must have been so awful for you. The bleeding stopped briefly after five minutes but then it started again and continued for several more minutes, so I wanted to call 911. I called your pediatrician first and while I was on hold, the bleeding stopped, for good this time.

The nurse I talked to said sometimes a trauma to the nose causes delayed bleeding hours later. She also said that you might have been picking your nose. Neither explanation seemed to make sense in your case--you said you hadn't hit your nose on anything that day and insisted that you hadn't been picking your nose (and even if you had, you would had to have done some crazy deep nose picking with like a razor blade to have caused such a large gush of blood). So I don't think we'll ever know what caused such a horrible nose bleed but thankfully, you didn't have anymore nose bleeds last night or at all today. Whew! I'm so glad you are okay now!

Love,
Mom