Anyone else out there get bloody noses? Ok I’m a total wimp, but a few times a year when I blow my nose i get a little bleeding (always the same nostril). And no, its not from picking my nose!
I’ve heard they can cauterize the inside of the nose to cure this. Sounds agonizing. Does this work?
Yep. It works just fine and it’s not painful. When my son was about 9 or 10, he and we got tired of his frequent nosebleed. Went to an ENT who said that he just had to have a couple of too-close-to-the-surface blood vessels cauterized. We had it done in the office. To the best of my memory, and it’s a good 20 years ago, he didn’t cry. And neither did I while watching. That cured it.
Once I’ve examined a patient with a history of episodic nosebleeds and found nothing terribly untoward, I’ll tell them to avoid aspirin if possible, ( a big feature in recurrent bleeding), and use regular applications of saline nasal spray (not the decongestant kind like afrin or neosynephrine!) and make sure to lubricate their nasal canals with a petroleum-based gel to help protect the tissue.
I only cauterize if I see a particular spot or two that’s a problem. It’s an easy (if unpleasant) office procedure.
I tend to get nosebleeds in the winter when the air is very dry. And when I get them they’re usually gushers requiring copious amounts of absorbant material to soak up. They clot up pretty quickly though. Then comes a few days of yanking out bloody snot.
One time when I was a kid I got one in my sleep and bled all over the pillow. My mom came in to wake me up and started freaking out. I looked at the puddle of blood, flipped the pillow over, and went back to sleep. 
I got them as a kid a lot. I even went the cauterization route when I was around 10 and it hurt like a motherf****r. I’d rate it along the lines of a root canal.
Maybe the doc I had didn’t know what he was doing.
It might have slowed the bleeds down a bit but I still got them even till this day 24 years later maybe a couple times a year.
I had better luck discovering ways to stop them.
The key is to get it to clot as fast as possible. Pinch your nostrils closed and lean forward. Forget that nonsense about tipping your head back. That just flows the blood into your throat and you choke on it.
Nose pinched, head forward, wait about 5 minutes, done. Clean your face up with some wet tissues.
Hampshire, Thanks for the warning about pain. It may sitll be worth it of it was permanent. But now I’m not so sure.
Its counter intuitive, but I’ll try the head forward thing. And i experienced the down the throat blood drip this morning trying to drive to work with my head tilted back!
The blood stung my throat like a mother. Then I started coughing and splattered all over the car door interior. I basically looked liked someone with about 1 minute to live. Not pretty.
Or you can always use the hands free method of jamming some kleenex up there.
Just don’t be too eager to remove it too early or you’ll have a gusher.
Slight hijack regarding absorbent material & nosebleeds.
A patient was seen by one of the ENTs I work for after having been seen by the emergency room for excessive bleeding. He was referred to us, and came in (under suggestion from his wife - a very smart cookie) with his recurrent nosebleed stoppered by a tampon which they cut in half & used as they had removed the gauze packing used by the ER.
I thought this was pretty clever & I’m not sure I would’ve been creative enough to think of it. 
</hijack>
hijack of the hijack re: creativity and medical personell:
(spoilered TMI involving girly bits)
When I was mysteriously bleeding during pregnancy, they injected blue dye into my uterus to see if it would leak out through the vagina. To check for the leak, they put a speculum in place and used forceps to insert a folded 4X4 piece of gauze. 10 minutes later, they again placed the speculum to visually check the position of the gauze. One hour later, a third speculum was required to manually remove the gauze with forceps and check for blue dye. It was there, I got c-sectioned.
Once I realized what was going on, I turned to the nurse and said (a mite testily), “Tampons. Walgreens. $3.49 for a box of 20. Three speculums and three procudures by three doctors: 1 bazillion dollars.”
She rolled her eyes right with me.
All the doctors were men, BTW.