Burn the nose

Hi

I don't know if it's correct to say "to burn the nose" when you burn inside the nose to prevent nosebleeding (I'm not from an english speaking country).. but I hope you understand it. I wonder if anyone have tried it, and experienced less bleeding from the nose? Any other experience? I really don't know so much about it, and I wonder if the nosebleeding can be a cause of high blood preassure or something else than just low platelets, and if I burn inside my nose - maybe the preassure will become so high that I start to bleed from other places, for instance my eyes. Like the blood have to come out. Don't laugh if I'm overreacting, and I'm being totally wrong But can the bleeding become worse after burning?

Hey Froken! The term you are looking for is 'cauterize". It can be very helpful for some people and does not cause bleeding from other areas of the body. Nose bleeds can be caused by reasons other than ITP, even if a person has lower than normal counts.

I get nosebleeds at higher counts mostly due to alergies and a dry climate. They are more likely when the seasons change (turn on furnace, enjoying the warm days outside. etc) At lower counts, they just take longer to stop. I've had the acuterization done once, when I was getting them daily and more than one a day. It was a minor procedure in the doctors office with silver nitrate. There was some moderate pain for a minute or two.

I find that if I run a humidifier or use a nasal saline gel I can prevent them. Here in the US, the brand I like is "AYR".

Last August (Australian winter)I had an unexplained nose bleed that required hospital, platelet transfusion, Octagam infusion & plugging - not pretty! Then a visit to a Physician who referred me to an ENT specialist. He explained I had a burst blood vessel in my nose, which happens occasionally, & causterized it. He said we all get small bleeds, but because of ITP (my count was 9 at the time) it was uncontrollable.
I was just relieved it did not happen any where else - I asked him to check my brain out - he was not amused! :silly:
Thanks, Bunnie, for the reminder to use nasal gel. We have the slow combustion fire box going again.
mj

I had a funny experience with a nosebleed once. I was on a bird walk and tripped, falling on my face. It was very hard to get my nosebleed to stop. Another birder walked me into the refuge office to see if we could find a woman who looked young enough to have a tampon! We did. Fortunately, my bleeding stopped just before we were about to stuff the tampon up my nose!

Very funny story Karen, would have made an amusing photo!

I used to get my nose cauterized all the time and it helped for a little while and then the nose bleeds would start again. I don't think my nose bleeds actually started because of my low platlets as i have really big blood vessels in my nose that burst sometimes, particulary if i have been blowing it a lot if i have a cold or blow really hard, but the low counts made them harder to stop. I never experienced bleeding from anywhere else as a result of having my nose cauterized, but it is a very unpleasent experience to have to go through, especially as a young child, it hurts a lot, so i'd research it and get some experts opinions on the subject before i'd tourture myself like that if i were you. I wish i had the option to say no, but i was too young and my parents decided my medical treatment then. They always included me in their talks, but the decision was always ultimatly theirs to make, not mine. I still get the odd nose bleed now, but i wouldn't put myself through that again unless it was absoultly medically neccessary to stop me from bleeding to death.