Need advice quickly please. To go to A&E? Waiting for a call back from 111 - beginning to really panic *MNHQ content warning for blood*

Probably based on those lucky women like a friend of mine, who get nice light 3 day periods. And not on the rest of us who aren't so lucky. A few tablespoons covers just half of the first day for me

My daughter went through a nosebleed phase where she would bleed like this every few days! I’d be clearing clots out of the sink, it was honestly awful.

She went to the GP who told us to go to A+E to have it cauterised.

Fortunately they stopped after about a year, and she hasn’t had one for about 2 years now.

This is absolutely a great idea. Time skips or stops depending on your personality and neither is helpful medically.

Perhaps make a GP appointment and request a referral to ENT?

I was once at dinner with my friend S, who's a TA and has has loads of training for kids with quirky medical conditions. My nose started to bleed and she immediately checked her watch and began a timer. It stopped once I'd utterly ruined a white linen napkin, but it struck me as a good idea - time moves oddly when you're in a situation like that, either as patient or carer.

If bleeding doesn't stop after 20 mins or so and is heavy, i'd say it's ok to go.

What do you count as an emergency?

Hope your daughter is OK. Just to say that this happened to a family member of mine and they went to the GP after 2 instances of it. Oddly enough, while they were there it started again and they took them to a&e in an ambulance. They called me and I offered to drive them instead but they said no due to the amount of blood. So I would say at least go to the GP to let them know what happened.

Is it one nostril or both? As it’s restarted I would take her to A&E. they can ask ENT to take a look and run some bloods.

Ds was eventually prescribed antibiotic cream to use & the nosebleeds stopped.

My ds used to get bad nosebleeds, the only thing that worked at home was to roll up a piece of tissue or a cotton wool pad into a tampon shape & put it up his nose then leave it as long as possible. You could set off for A & E & it stop on the way. Get her to suck ice & an ice pack on the bridge of her nose to shrink the blood vessels.

I would not call an ambulance for a nosebleed unless it was absolutely spurting, and it doesn't look like that was, but I absolutely would go be seen for a nosebleed that didn't stop. Unfortunately A&E might really be the only option. A GP can't always cauterise and might not be able to see you quickly.

The tampon trick is a good one though. I forget what they're called, but doctors use something similar. They put pressure on the vessels from inside.

I’m sure OPs daughter will be fine and so are most bleeds.

For those doubting whether a nose bleed can be serious I have It is an inherited condition HHT or Osler Weber Rendu when blood vessels don’t form properly. It is called I would normally get a taxi (not keen on people bleeding in the car) or a friend. However it might need an ambulance.
My longest bleed was about 3 hours

if you have persistent heavy nose bleeds that are hard to stop please get checked as there are other potentially very serious symptoms. The recommended nosebleed treatment is also different.

Bil got stabbed in the neck and taxi drove him to the hospital.

I think taxis can be good. Plus op just needs to hold tissues up, it won't spurt everywhere.

How are things today op?

Hope your little one is doing ok

Have you ever seen a taxi driver's reaction to your wanting to take someone seeping blood in their nice clean taxi?

Good advice if they are a regular occurrence.

My ds got a sudden nosebleed in PE (not caused by an impact) when he was 16 or so. It didn't stop and the teacher called an ambulance for him. We'd probably have driven him in if it had happened at home but I don't think it's automatically unreasonable to call an ambulance for a nosebleed.

Take her to A&E at a hospital, not to urgent care / walk-in at an outpost - a friend's daughter had exactly this experience last month and they brought down an ENT consultant who cauterised the nose on the same day.

We had to send my gran in by ambulance with a nosebleed that made her living room look like a murder scene. But she was a very frail 91 year old on blood thinners, not a mobile and otherwise healthy 7 year old, and that was 111's call not mine.
I would definitely be getting that sorted OP. She will probably need it cauterising.

My husband had a posterior nosebleed which was so bad and couldn't be stopped, that he had to be blue lighted by ambulance to hospital.

Where we live in Perth Australia, if you call an ambulance, the paramedics decide if you need to go to hospital. They took one look at the three containers of blood and the blood in the toilet and all over the floor, and they said he had to go straight to ED.

He ended up being kept in hospital overnight and had a rapid rhino balloon put up his nose. The ENT surgeon saying with that amount of blood loss, you cannot leave it to chance.

Not all nosebleeds are minor.

My sister and I used to have epic nose bleeds. I remember pulling an 8 inch long clot out of my nostril after one that lasted a couple of hours😳My sister’s, though, were worse than mine - heavier and much more frequent. She had to have her nose cauterised a few times and it turned out she had a condition called Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiactasia. I’m certainly not suggesting that it is this, as there are other obvious symptoms of the condition in conjunction with the nosebleeds, but in general I think it’s always worth getting nosebleeds checked out if they become heavy, persistent and frequent. Mine became less frequent and heavy as I grew up, although I would say I’m still slightly more prone to them than the average person.

I used to get massive nose bleeds as a child, had to have a blood vessel cauterised in the end. Not pleasant but fairly common I think x

I used to get like this as a child, my tonsils and adenoids were putting too much pressure on the blood vessels so they had to be removed and had a few vessels cauterized while I waited. Hope she's OK this morning and the second bleed stopped quickly

OP, how is your daughter now? I hope she got seen and is home and resting up. x