What to do when your nose bleeds?
 

I just busted my nose and blood came spewing out

The first aid thingie I read was to put my head down, squeeze the bridge of my nose to stop the blood and let it flow.

I began drippin like crazy I couldn't stand it anymore. I just tilted my head back and relaxed. But I ended up with the back of my nose filled with blood, and hard a had time blowing it out.

So what am I supposed to do?

I have always heard to put a cool rag on the back of your neck. Not sure how this is supposed to help. I usually pinch my nose off and try to relax, get the blood pressure down.

I used to get nosebleeds all the time. For a while, I would just let the blood run into the sink while I held an ice pack to the bridge of my nose so that I could get the blood to clot but not have to swallow a lot of it first, but that always left a hell of a clean-up job.

My friend just taught me a new technique (not quite sure how it works, but it sure does): take a little piece of napkin or paper towel, about an inch wide and 1.5-2 inches long and fold/roll it up so that about 3/4 cm thick around and semi-cylindrical. Then, stick it up under your upper lip (above the gums) as far as it will go. The wad of paper should be small enough so that you can pull your lip over it and not have to hold it in place, but big enough to apply a good amount of pressure to that little membrane that lives there.

The bleeding stops within a minute or so when I do this. That way, I only need one tissue to catch the rest of the blood that flows before it stops and the clean-up is easy. It looks pretty funny, too. You can give your friends a kick next time the old schnoz bleeds.

LoL.

All the steps you (Supple Cow and Cadwiz) mentioned above seems to take time.

Lets just say I have a pack of tissue paper. The conventional method is to lie back and let the blood flow into the back of your nose. The 'correct' method (which I'm not very sure) is to pinch the bridge and let it flow off.

Is the 'correct' method correct? :P

Thanks for the help though, Supple Cow and Cadwiz, ;)

Tampons, plain and simple.

Thank you, Beavis.

Leaning back sends it to your stomach.

I find leaning forward, pinching the bridge of my nose, and holding tissue under the end of my nose all work well together, but a workmate at my last job introduced me to something brilliant: dribble a small amount of cold water onto the top of your head. Apparently it's common to do that where he comes from in India, and it does seem to stop much faster that way.

Nachimir : When I pinched the bridge of my nose and leaned forward, it kept dripping and didn't stop for 30 seconds. Began to scare me.. so I leaned back.

Care to explain the method from India? Dribble a small amount of water on the top of my head? As in like, wet my hair?

When I get nose bleeds, which is rare, i just stuff a tissue up the offending nostril and let it sit there for a while. Then, I'll change it out for a new one. Works fine for me.

I use Supple Cow's method. You can use a strip of Kleenex, generally about half the width of the tissue (note that facial tissue has a "grain" to it and tears very easily in the long direction and very poorly in the short direction). When I use the technique after getting a nosebleed, I can actually *blow my nose* almost immediately to clear the crap out, without getting a bunch of blood with it. I cannot recommend this technique highly enough.

I just pinch it with a tissue until it stops. Worked fine when someone punched me in the nose the other day. Took a few minutes to stop bleeding, but I was fine after that.

HAHA!!! that was funny....but what I usually do is tilt my head back and keep snorting until a big wad of bloody mucus hits my throat and then I swallow it. Usually then it will go away.

Ugh.. ugh..

Man.. that is gross :P

Don't worry, the old addage comes to mind.."All Bleeding Stops...Eventually"

Well, as a lisenced EMT, our procedure (yeah, sometimes we have to respond to stupid crap like that) is to tell the patient to lean forward and pinch their nose. Use a tissue to absorb all the blood, but apply some pressure with that pinch to stop the blood flow. Yeah, leaning back does send that blood to your stomach, which can possibly make you feel nauseous.

For more tips, put an ice cube in your mouth. As you know, your body constricts blood vessels that are cold, to conserve body heat. The ice cube or ice cream in your mouth will constrict some of the bloodvessels going to your nose just a bit, but enough to help.

And whatever you do, don't blow your nose afterwards, or you'll blow out all those clots that just stopped the bleeding.

Everyone has given good advice, so I'll throw in my tip:

Go with the flow and have some fun.

Don a loin cloth and smear the blood on your face like warpaint. A few stripes under the eyes maybe... and a vertical pair of stripes going down from your nostrils, over your lips, down your chin/neck. Maybe rub your palms with it and put a big bloody hand print (like Wilson) on your chest.

Follow up with a session of screaming at people in an unknown tongue.

By the time the fun stops, the bleeding will have ceased.

Stompy wins the award for best off-the-cuff response.Congrats.
I find the most important part of stopping a bloody nose is to relax. If you sit and breath slowly, you can lower your blood pressure. Wet a paper towel and fold it about 7 times, or until it is small enough to just fit over both nostrils. Keep your head level and cover the bloody nostral. When you notice the blood flow slowing, use the paper towel just to wipe the blood off. Slowly inhale through your nose; not enough to swallow the blood, but enough to get some air though your nose. Remember, the reason the blood stops is the coagulation is finished. Platelets in the blood form a cover over the leakage. If you slowly inhale, the air will help the liquid part of your blood evaporate and the platlets do their job. Remember not to get angry. Bloody noses can be very frustrating espically in public situations. Just walk calmly to an area where you won't be bothered by people staring and asking again and again, "Should I call 911?!?"

No Joke there!
 

Actually, using tampons is no joke. I play rugby and frequently end up with a bloodied/broken nose during games. Before each game I cut an OB tampon in half and cut off the string. I put the two peices in my pocket and when I need one I shove a peice up the offending nostril and I am all taken care of. No blood sub needed!

The tissue under the lips sounds interesting, I might try that next time. My usual trick is to pinch the nostrils shut, sit down and tilt my head forwards a bit so that the blood won't go down the throat. This fills the nose with blood that will coagulate and stop the flow eventually. The important parts are to stay calm, be patient and not open up the nose too quickly, and lastly getting rid of the massive coagulated clot. Either gently pick it out or tilt your head back, let it slide back and either spit or swallow. :)

I get pretty massive nose bleeds and this stops them every time.

ive never had a nosebleed but tilting your head back and putting a towel soaked with cold water on your forehead stops it

What I do is this, I lean back and snort it back into my throat, then hock the blood out, like a lougie. This way there's no need for napkins, and it's a quick fix...