Caitlin Gets Her Nosed Cauterized

Caitlin has been nose-bleeding again every day for the past 3 days. She's had this problem since she was a baby. But with school starting next week at ICA, it would be very difficult for her if she continues to nose-bleed while in school. So Cols decided to have her nose cauterized this afternoon. She called me up to accompany them to the doctor since they don't think they can control her if she freaks out.

Ilene called the clinic first to set an appointment. The clinic is in Quezon Ave. So by the time we got there, it was about 3pm. Caitlin did not seem nervous, although she kept asking if the nurse was already calling for her turn. When it was her turn finally, we walked into the clinic. I sat on the doctor's chair (kinda like a dental chair) and Caitlin sat on my lap.

When the doctor started poking on her nose, Caitlin started panicking and crying. I had to hold her real tight and wrapped my legs around hers just to keep her from moving. The doctor inserted his camera inside and showed us the thin lining of her nose and the visible blood vessels. Then he put some topical anesthesia on cotton and inserted in Caitlin's nose to numb it.

After a couple of minutes (which felt like an eternity for Caitlin), he pulled out the cotton and signalled us that he will proceed with the cauterization. Of course, he kept assuring Caitlin that he's just taking a photo of her nose. Deep-down, Caitlin is smart enough to know that he's really planning to cauterize her, I think.

The procedure looked very painful. Ilene stepped in to the clinic for a while but had to step out since she could not bear seeing Caitlin suffer. Her cries could be heard all the way outside. Even with holding her tight, she still managed to move her head a bit which caused the doctor to miss the exact target and accidentally brushed her cleft with the cauterization tool. So Caitlin ended up with a burned cleft. :(

View the ordeal by click here for my very first Google Video upload (this video was just taken by a Nokia phone so I had o convert the small 3gp video into avi for upload. The quality leaves a lot to be desired.)