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Do not consider the contents of this blog as professional medical advice.

21 November 2011: A Waking-Up, a Call, but not a Wake-Up Call Per Se

I awoke last night/early this morning around 2:30 AM to a sensation that was familiar but different.  I awoke to my old friend, pain from erection, but there was something different this time.  Along with the pain in the usual areas, I had a sticky sensation in my boxers.

I got up out of bed, turned on the lights to change my boxers, and found out that the sticky substance in my boxers was blood and that there was a lot of it.  It was still coming out.

In my sleep, the bandage over the fleshy crater had come off, the ulcer-like wound in the pit of it had opened, and it was gushing blood very badly.  The blood was all over my groin, the lower part of my abdomen, and the upper parts of my thighs.

Step one was to stop the bleeding.

Using my thumb, I put pressure on the wound until the blood stopped.  Around this point in time, I became conscious of a feeling of light-headedness.  Unsure if this was from being tired, nausea at seeing that much blood, or blood loss itself, I called one of those 24 hour nurse hotlines for advice.

I got an answer after about a minute of waiting through obnoxious, canned, pre-recorded health announcements.  The nurse came on and proceeded to ask me a bunch of nursey questions.  When asked what was wrong, I reported light-headedness and blood loss.  The nurse asked the source.

I paused for a moment.  I lied and said it was a nosebleed.  I really didn't want to explain everything over the phone at that hour, and the advice would likely be the same anyway.

I was told to drink plenty of fluids, restore electrolytes, get plenty of iron in my diet, and eat healthily tomorrow.  If I were to start bleeding again heavily, I should go to the emergency room.  I took the first parts of her advice using a multivitamin, a bottle of water, and a bottle of sports-drink.

Step two was to clean myself up without anyone else in the residence hall noticing.

This part was easy at around 3:00 AM when most were asleep.  I covered up using a bathrobe, quietly walked to the showers, managed to rinse the blood off of me with cold water, and got the vast majority of it out of my underwear.

I got back to my room, re-bandaged, and eyed my floor and bed.  The sheets were not spared from this mess, and I used my wet towel to clean the blood from the tiled floor.

I stripped my sheets and mattress cover, balled them up so the blood was on the inside along with my towel, ventured down to the laundry center in our basement, shucked in some quarters and my bloodied linens, and set the water on cold.

Laundry done at around 4:30 AM.

Crashed until around 7:15 AM.

Class started at 8:00 AM.

It's around 11:00 AM now, CST.

Haven't seen any more blood.

I'll spare you the pictures because they would be terrible, and I was stressed out enough at the time to not think of taking them.

1 comment:

  1. Hey brother!

    That's not right to happen. You should take half day off from classes and go to the doctor's office right away so she can examine you and resolve that. Your health is much more important. It' doesn't matter if you loose a pair of classes you can catch up later.

    And you should've asked your roommate for some help. Don't be ashamed to tell him your problem, if you explain him I'm sure he'll understand. Sometimes you need some help.

    Take care.

    ReplyDelete