Bilingual Bloodwork
Guerita is prone to getting nosebleeds and seems to go through periods of getting them quite frequently, mostly at night. Last week she had one every night for 5 nights straight. I’ve spoken with her paediatrician about it before and been reassured that its probably because of the very dry air we have (particularly this time of year) but 5 nights in a row got me worried.
Last week I spent the better part of a day getting frustrated as I visited just about every chemist in town trying to find a humidifier with no luck but then the nosebleeds stopped and we breathed a sigh of relief. Then last night she had 2 in the one night so we’re back to worrying about it.
Today she went off to school fairly happily but a few hours later I got a call from the teacher saying she was not well - a bit hot and she’d had another nosebleed. By some stroke of luck I was able to get her straight into see the doctor. Any doubt I’d had about whether it was necessary to go to the doc was forgotten.
I have Googled “frequent nosebleeds children” endlessly (of course) and unlike most of the medical symptoms I usually Google when I am over-reacting the results are reassuring. The overwhelming number of articles say that the majority of nosebleeds, particularly in children, are nothing to worry about and are usually caused by dry air or over-zealous picking!
The paediatrician reassured me again but noticed that her glands were up and her tonsils inflamed, which would explain the temperature. My girls are always getting tonsillitis so that was no surprise. But now he decides he may as well order a barrage of tests just to make sure there’s nothing going on. CBC, blood-clotting, glandular fever, TB skin test and some other fungus found in Mexico. There’s nothing like a list of lab tests to set my mind racing with possibilities. Do you know that feeling when you go into the doctor’s office feeling pretty confident there’s nothing really wrong and the doctor agrees, but orders some tests “just to rule a few things out” and you walk out stressed because maybe, just maybe something is wrong. My head says everything’s fine, but my pounding heart and my blurry eyes and my constricted throat think otherwise.
I thought trying to get Guerita to have a dental check-up was bad, but holding her down cuddling her while they take blood and do 2 skin tests was horrific. It was a juggling act trying to hold on to Chiq with one arm and keep Guerita still with another.
And boy did she scream.
In 2 languages.
The lab technicians were a little bemused when she was saying “I don’t want a needle!” I’m pretty sure they knew what her problem was 
but it wasn’t until she started yelling “No lo quiero” that they really took notice. It was all a bit surreal - here I am feeling worried about her and the test results, stressed about how to get her to sit still for the needle, guilty that I am subjecting her to this traumatic experience and… proud that she’s able to have a complete meltdown in perfect Spanish! Her English pleas were quite clearly directed at me, but as soon as the blood-letters got started she was screaming at them in Spanish. “No lo quiero! Me duele! No quiero la otra!” (I don’t want it! It hurts! I don’t want the other one!).
To top off a truly wonderful day, I finally managed to track down a humidifier at a shop the doctor told me about. It’s now happily puffing moist air into Guerita’s bedroom; who knows if it will make any difference. You would think after my search for that, getting a prescription filled would be easy. The doctor had prescribed two things - antibiotics for the tonsillitis and Vitamin K to help with clotting. I was bit harried by the time we got to the chemist and didn’t pay much attention to the purchase, so it wasn’t until I got home that I realised what the “pharmacist” (I use the term loosely) had given me. Antibiotic TABLETS - not what the doc prescribed and I have no idea whether one tablet is the same dose as in the syrup he indicated - and Vitamin K TO BE ADMINISTERED INTRAVENOUSLY. WTF???
The Mexican system for prescription drugs is very different to home - there doesn’t seem to be nearly as many regulations on them as in Australia. Some medications are behind the counter, so I guess you need to ask the pharmacist for them, but I don’t think you need anything from a doctor to get them. I have bought repeats of a prescription with the same original scrap of paper from the doc! (Not that I’m in the habit of self-medicating, mind you, it’s just that I knew the infection hadn’t cleared up with one course of antibiotics after my toe hack job surgery). There’s certainly no 10 minute wait while the pharmacist taps and frowns at the computer doing who knows what before printing the all important sticker and handing over the drugs. 
So that stuff up required another trip out to get the correct medication (only had to go to 2 chemists! Progress!).
And now we wait for test results. Even though I know the chances of them turning up anything are slim, I can’t help but focus on that tiny little chance there’s something wrong.
Tell me - am I alone in my madness? Do you all Google symptoms endlessly just to torture yourself and let your mind run wild with all the possible worst-case scenarios? Or is just me?
And does anyone have any kid’s nosebleed wisdom to impart? Nothing to worry about, right?
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big hugs watching your children endure blood tests and being restrained /helping is gut wrenching …
I was nodding about the Googling for answers - it does your head and heart no good. I hope your googling worries are unfounded.I hope Guerita is on the mend too.
My friend lived in Bolivia for 2 years and she was telling us stories of medical and general misadventures that we can’t begin to imagine.
Very cute though Guerita screaming to them in Spanish and you English
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I guess it doesn’t help to tell you that there are some truly amazing pead path nurses here. My girls had bloods taken when they were 2 and neither of them even noticed the needle! They had them done again recently and again hardly blinked… but there is nothing worse than that feeling of holding your child down and making them do something you know is horrible because not doing it could mean something even more horrible!
I have done the google thing before.. my most recent google medical trauma was when I searched on ‘baby constipation’ bad bad bad news for something that sounds so simple and easy to deal with! LOL
We have the occasional blood nose here and have always been told that they are not usually a sign or symptom of anything horrible and that they are only off concern if they child has some other medical condition as well… so here’s hoping they are just a pain in the bum for you guys to deal with and nothing more sinister as I am sure will be the case!
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Sweetie I do it all the time. Especially before I was diagnosed with PCOS and IBS. I was convinced it was ovarian cancer…. sometimes google is NOT your friend.
Boo has to have a blood test soon. Been putting it off for months. His last one was when he was 2 and it took 4 of us to hold him down. Might teach him Swahili beforehand. Just for my entertainment.
I am sure your precious girl will be fine. But the medical system there sucks!
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Poor Guirita! And poor you, Guera! It must be hard!!! My mum said my aunt took me and my brother for our shots when we were younger because after her first time with me and having to hold me she couldn`t do it again!
In Japan the nurse holds the children and then they pass them back to the mother to calm them down…..
I hope everything comes back ok!
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How awful for you both
Heres hoping the tests come back clear and the humidifier helps with the blood noses
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Thanks all for the supportive words.
No nosebleed last night, which hopefully means the humidifier worked and wasn’t just a fluke. No reactions on the skin tests yet which is good and Guerita is feeling fine and her normal bubbly self.
Glad to know I’m not the only compulsive googler out there - although I don’t wish it on anyone!
Hugs. Lots of hugs. I know what it is like to have to hold a little one down. How traumatic it can be for both parties. I had Noah and Ivy in the chair yesterday (only the Ivygirl had bloods) and it was a challenge.
I think you are so totally normal. I research everything that I have no understanding of. Googling can drive you nuts though, so I usually stick to the medical journals these days. If it’s not normal, then I’m not normal…hang on, we could be totally onto something here, LOL
As for the nose bleeds. I have two that get them alot in the Summertime. Our paed said the same thing - nothing to worry about, still you worry, even if they soothe you at the time, seeing that bright blood everywhere is very disconcerting.
Hugs to you.
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[...] all normal on the bloodwork [...]
Well, better 6 weeks late than never - here are two things we do for nosebleeds in Mexico City (high altitude, dry climate). My US cure - a light coating of vaseline inside each nostril before going to bed. It works for both my husband and I and his almost 12 year old daughter.
The “kid’s remedy” straight from my sister-in-law who is the office administrator at a private school here - stand her with her back to the wall, take the hand that is on the same side as the nosebleed and put that index finger on the outside of the nose on the other side on the hard spot just below the bridge of the nose-press with medium pressure. At the same time, raise the other arm above the head.
She swears by this and has been using it for almost 10 years now with elementary school kids. Just another bit of Mexican home remedy. And, btw, at our house, my mother-in-law gives the injections . . . and the middle sister-in-law prescribes for the family straight out of a Spanish copy of The Physician’s Desk Reference Guide (and, no, she’s not a doctor - she just reads it for fun and because she’s a know-it-all).
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just a hint…..
i used to suffer from almost daily nosebleeds. when we finally told the ped, he sent us with the ear, throat, nose whatever dr. basically the problem was that one of the blood vessels in my nose was pretty superficial, so nose-picking and sneezing would physically cause a tear; hence the bleeding.
solution: cautherization. it IS painful, it stings like hell. but since then, i’ve probably have only had less than 5 nosebleeds in 10-15 years. this is a simple treatment done in the dr.’s office, doesn’t take more than 15 min, except if you cry and squirm like i did. hehehe g’luck!
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