More on this later. Here’s one thing. The artery that feeds your nose runs across the corner of your jaw. Run your thumb over the back corner of the jawbone. There’s a little shallow just forward of the corner. Pressyour thumb upward in that shallow spot to cut down the blood flow.
I used to get chronic nosebleeds, but it cleared up after the first time it was cauterised (I expected them to use a hot poker or something equally medieval, but they just used Silver Nitrate on a Q-Tip) - crucial to the process is the healing though; I wasn’t allowed to blow my nose for a fortnight afterward and I had to shove vaseline up my nostrils twice daily (which was truly awful - my nose felt like it was dripping all the time, even though it wasn’t)
Before the treatment, I just used to sit absolutely still somewhere cool and wait for it to stop; anything you can do to (gently) restrict the blood flow is probably good - breathing cool air should cause the blood vessels to constrict, a cold compress on the bridge of the nose may also help.
Inserting anything into the nostrils to mop up or stop the flow is likely to just disturb the wound and start it all again when removed.
I have had nosebleeds my entire life, and have been cauterized/lasered to no lasting effect as well. Suggestions doctors have made along the way have included slicing up maxipads to pinching off the nose. Pinching works, but tends to leave (TMI alert) a lot of dried blood in your head (read: boogers).
For acute treatment, I go with the tilt-your-head-back-and-sniff method, which leads to some very gross swallowing but seems to cut off the bleeding quickly (the sniffing dries the bleeding spot, lets it clot?) and with minimal follow-on gunk in your nose.
For prevention, I don’t do anything, but I have been told that saline nasal spray and Vaseline on a q-tip do a good job keeping things from drying out and bleeding.
Do you know what is causing these things? If not, you should check out http://www.hht.org among other sites since some causes of chronic nosebleeds are actually symptoms of conditions with more serious side effects.
I used to get them in Colorado a lot. To prevent I would use Ayr (saline nasel spray) that I got from the supermarket.
An old wives tale that works for me is to stick something under your upper lip to help stop the bleeding. Gum, folded paper, whatever, just pack your upper lip with something and see if it helps you. YMMV.
I had the same treatment and follow up (to repair a ‘brisk bleeder’ - love that phrase, hated the nose bleeds). Of course I promptly caught a cold, and not being able to blow your nose for 2 weeks with a cold is not something I want to live through again.
I was told by several people beforehand the cauterization would hurt like hell, but in the reality the doctor numbed the nostril first, and it only felt like little pin-pricks - really not even noticable.
Every time before this, just leaning back seemed to do the trick (after a few minutes) of stopping the bleeding, but when this bleeder let go, there was no real stopping the bleeding until I had it cauterized.
also i’m somewhat disapointed to find out they don’t stick a red hot poker up there anymore. what will i use to threaten my kids with when they have the nosebleeds with the curious red finger? now stop doing that or they will stick a q-tip up your nose with some goo on it, doesn’t have quite the same effect.
A chronic coke habit will do the trick too, if one of my college classmates is to be believed.
I used to get bloody noses a lot when I was little (6-12 years old), but haven’t had any problems since then. I second the idea of keeping the nostrils moisturized with vaseline, but if you’ve been cauterized multiple times already this may only limit the number of nosebleeds.
Not necessarily. I’m in perfect health, but have had nosebleeds for over 40 years. They usually come at the tail end of a cold, when my nostrils are dried out. Most often, it happens when I’m washing my face (I use cold water, which may have something to do with it).
I’ve used two methods: keeping my head up and pinching the nostril shut. This does take a long time to stop, but OTOH, it usually fixes things so I don’t have recurrance.
Second method is to tip my head back. This stops more quickly, but is more prone to starting to bleed again.
I have found that if you gently inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth when you have a nosebleed, it seems to stop more quickly. You want oxygen in your nose – that’s what triggers clotting. At the same time, exhaling might loosen the clot that’s forming.
If you had hemophilia, you’d know. You’re born with it and most likely it would be found when the hemophilliac is an infant.
Mockingbird-do you have allergies? My sister does, and she used to get nosebleeds pretty frequently. I think since she started taking medicine for her allergies, she doesn’t get them as much.
I have always tended to suffer from them in the wintertime, especially when I sleep at night. They are usually not of the dripping-blood variety but instead of the [tmi]big chunky solid red booger[/tmi] variety.
This has been much less of a problem since I moved to Ireland, although it started up again when I was home in DC over last Christmas. I assume it has to do with Americans leaving their central heating on overnight.
Apparently, nose pickingisthe most common cause. Not the only, of course, but the most common. Might explain why nosebleeds are more frequent among children than adults. I got my very first nosebleed a week or two ago. No, I wasn’t picking my nose. I must say there’s something unsettling about watching blood spew from your face.
First off, as has been noted above, talking to a doctor about the possible causes could be helpful. But, if its been a lifelong chronic problem, it’s probably nothing serious (does that make any sense?). My dad, however, had a bout with nosebleeds 6-7 yrs. ago. He had some high blood pressure and mega work-related stress. Calm down - you might stop bleeding.
I also used to get mucho nosebleeds as a child, not any for a while (yes, I couldn’t keep my fingers out). I made nose-tampons out of single sheets of toilet paper - fold in half twice in same direction, then roll, not too tight. I would also pinch the top of my nose, but the jaw artery trick a laAskNott is worth trying.
[TMI]One other method I used was this. After stopping the flow for a couple of minutes with the nose-tampon, enough to stop the major (relatively) bleeding but not the seepage that inevitably happened afterwards, I would remove the NT and gently blow my nose into the toilet, usually ejecting a half-clotted blood booger in process. Stuff another sheet of TP up there for a couple minutes of quiet resting, and I was usually good to go again.[/TMI] Sorry bout that…
Vitamin K is important in clotting. Some say it’s hard to have a diet deficient in K, but when your nose is dripping, that’s hard to believe. K is in lots of green things, but highest in alfalfa. I presume alfalfa sprouts, too.
If you get an infected, bleeding sore in your nose, it’s tough to heal. My doc gave me Bactroban, to be swabbed twice daily inside the nose. A generic antibiotic ointment might do it. I’m not a doctor of medicine. I’m just a guy who has stained a lot of handkerchiefs.
An ice pack over the middle of your face will constrict the blood vessels and slow the flow. It will also make your face red afterward. It will also make folks think you are napping while you wait for it to work.
I must say there’s something unsettling about watching blood spew from your face.