May 2016 – Write From Karen

I’m talking, of course, about the child falling into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Watch this video and tell me it doesn’t chill you to the bone.

It absolutely boggles my mind that people are so outraged at the zoo’s decision to save this child’s life by killing the gorilla. Is it sad? Yes, of course it’s sad, I’m not heartless. But this situation came down to one of two outcomes – either the child lives and the gorilla does not, or the gorilla lives and the child does not.

I’m pretty sure there’s not a third possibility – animals will do what animals are created to do. Animals do not have the ability to reason or come to logical conclusions. They are emotional creatures who exist on instinct – it’s an instinct to survive. We have no way of knowing if this gorilla perceived this child as a threat, or simply as a play thing. WE. DON’T. KNOW. ITS. INTENTIONS. All we know? There was a child in a habitat with an unpredictable animal and shooting it with a tranquilizer would not effectively stop it from harming the child. A tranquilizer would take precious minutes to take effect, it would just take a moment for the animal to throw the child up against the rock wall and smash his skull.

People’s sympathies are so screwed up nowadays. Where is that same anguish and heartfelt outrage over terrorism? I’ve said this, and I’ll keep saying this – being politically correct will kill us someday. Where is that same anguish and heartfelt outrage over abortion? Just because we can’t see the fetus doesn’t mean it’s not there.

But getting back to this gorilla episode. Do you really value the life of an animal over a child? Really? For real?? This situation came down to the gorilla or the child. You’re going to sit there, with a straight face and rational mind and tell me that you would choose the gorilla? Because an alarming amount of people have done just that.

It was a life-and-death situation. Knocking the gorilla out would have taken too much time. The boy was THERE, in the CAGE, with the animal. Defenseless. Terrified. No one to help him. You’re really going to tell me that it would have been more humane, more compassionate, to save the gorilla and not the child?

Stop blaming the parents. Kids get away from us. It happens. Even the most diligent parent can’t watch his/her children 24/7. It’s impossible. I’m quite certain the parent didn’t tell the child, “now, I’m going to turn my back for just a second, that’s all you have, a second, and then I want you to crawl under that fence, (or however the child found his way into the exhibit), and go play with that animal.” Children get away from us. They are not mature enough to grasp dangerous situations. They are programmed to be curious, their sense of caution hasn’t developed yet. Now if the parent(s) had forgotten the child and were an exhibit over, or it could be proven, (key phrase here), that the parents let the child run wild through the park and didn’t discipline, or consistently rein the child in and/or control the child, that would be one thing, but you can’t blame parents who blink one second and find their kid in a dangerous situation the next. ALL parents go through this. It’s one of the many mysteries of parenting – children will be children. So to call for these poor parents, who have already been scared our of their minds into almost losing their child, to be punished for an action they had no control over is ludicrous and cruel.

Over the last couple of days, we’ve been treated to another round of our trademark National Outrage. People have been creating petitions and venting their seething rage on social media. A Facebook memorial page was immediately created, with a picture of Harambe accompanied by the caption, “I was someone, and my life mattered.” Heartbroken citizens planned a candlelight vigil. Others left flowers at a statue of the beast, borrowing a page from the pagan animal worshipers of ancient times. Some protested outside the zoo, claiming the gorilla should not have been shot. Scores of others have echoed this sentiment, insisting that Harambe was only very gently dragging dragging a child around his cage like a rag doll.

We are living in the days of neo-paganism, where legions of depraved souls seem only capable of mustering compassion for wild beasts. As for human beings, they feel only contempt and indifference.

Source

I’ve always had nosebleeds. Ever since I was a kid, I knew that if I blew my nose too hard, or if I picked my nose, (not that I ever did that very often but come on, there were days when there would be a sharp booger poking the inside of your nose and what are you going to do, leave it there all day? Of course not), I would have bloody streaks on the tissue.

(And HELLO, by the way. It’s been months since I had the energy/motivation to write – aren’t you glad my first post in months is about disgusting things like nosebleeds? You’re welcome).

But this year, this year has been different. I think it started … back in February? I started getting nosebleeds daily.

D.A.I.L.Y.

And I’m not talking minor nosebleeds, I’m talking nosebleeds so severe it’s running down my face and I’m gagging on my own blood when I tip my head so far back I feel like I’m cutting off brain activity.

Did they start back in February? Maybe it was March, maybe in reality it was last week, all I know is, I’ve been having them daily for a while now. Well, maybe not daily, but four or five times a week.

It all started when Blake started complaining of nosebleeds. Now Brandon has always had them. He would have them so bad he would wake up and his white pillowcase would be bright red. He would have them so bad, I seriously thought I was going to have to take him to the ER a few times because I couldn’t control the flow.

But I don’t think he’s had them in a while. In fact, I don’t think he’s had any trouble with his allergies or nosebleeds since moving out of the house. He lives in an apartment, away from trees, more specifically, away from the four oak trees in our neighbor’s yard across the street. (He’s HIGHLY allergic to oak).

So Brandon having nosebleeds? Not unusual. Blake having nosebleeds? Weird.

I bought him some moisturizing spray and asked him to use it. He says that does seem to help but he continues to have them from time-to-time.

Me? I started having nosebleeds shortly after Blake told me he was having nosebleeds. Like mother, like son.

Again, not terribly unusual for me. I am prone to them whenever the air is dry and I’ve always had sinus problems. But the nosebleeds I’ve had these past several weeks (months?) have been … disturbing. And more than annoying because they tend to happen when I’m at work. I’ve been lucky so far, the “flows” I’ve had so far have been before clinic started, after clinic finished or off-clinic days. But one day, my nosebleed was so heavy it lasted 20 minutes. And that was the day it was happening so fast I was literally gagging on my own blood.

(TMI? Well, welcome to my blog).

And it’s always my right nostril that bleeds, never my left. Riddle me that one.

I finally figured out one of the reasons it was flowing so fast and heavy – I was taking baby aspirin as well as Excedrin Migraine, which has aspirin in it, because of my headaches. I took the baby aspirin because I was having heart palpitations (turns out they were actually panic attacks) and well, I have thin blood to begin with which translates into watery blood. In fact, my blood was so thin, I was spontaneously bruising. I had these weird bruises show up on my arms and I read somewhere that was a sign your blood was too thin.

I finally wised up and stopped taking aspirin. In any form. And though I still continue to have daily (mostly) nosebleeds, they aren’t lasting twenty minutes, more like five so I know my blood is not as thin because it’s clotting faster.

Now, if I can just figure out why I’m having these nosebleeds. I’m pretty sure they are tied to my sinuses because whenever my sinuses start squeezing and getting tight, I have a nosebleed. I’ve also been using my moisturizing nose spray and taking allergy pills, which seems to help, so that leads me to believe it has something to do with the air, allergies and/or sinuses.

I’ve found the best way to make them stop? Is just to lean over the sink and let the blood drip out and run its course. When the dripping slows down/stops, I stuff a piece of tissue up my nose, tip my head and breathe through my mouth. It stops shortly after that. Pinching my nose just makes it worse. (Though after doing a little big of research, I was pinching the bridge of my nose, not the soft tissue of my nostrils).

So yeah. I guess since I’m no longer menstruating, my body has to bleed some other way. (Just imagine what I’m like having around in real life? If you’re squeamish? Do not approach me).

We have a line of storms heading our way. I wonder if there’s any correlation between barometric pressure and my nosebleeds? I know my sinuses tighten up whenever there’s a change in the weather and there’s an old joke for people who live in Missouri: Don’t like the weather? Give it a minute. And for real, that is what it’s like in Missouri. Our weather is constantly changing.

I did a little research on nosebleeds for anyone out there wondering … and I’d like to add a word of caution: please take what you read on the Internet with a grain of salt. This should be applied to everything you read, but especially to any medical advice you’re seeking. I can say this because I work in the health care field and I can’t tell you the number of patients that come in convinced they have a life-threatening disease because their symptoms matched what they looked up on the Internet. Only a doctor can really diagnose what’s going on with you and if you’re that concerned, then seek your doctor’s advice. Don’t self-diagnose yourself. that will only get you into trouble and scare the bejeebees out of you.

So yeah. I’m dealing with frequent nosebleeds.

I feel like there’s so much to tell you and yet, there’s not. My life is the same day in, day out, but I would like to update you on what’s going on in my life. I’ve really done a piss-poor job of blogging this past year, actually, the past several years, ever since I started working at the hospital, but I will try my best to write more. I WANT to write more. I just have so little energy by the time I get home every night that the thought of using my brain any more just makes me want to cry.

Be patient with me. As I tell the patients I help who are frustrated and discouraged, “hey, life happens. All you can do is find ways to cope with it.”