Bleeding

The Problem
Blood is spurting from a cut or wound, and you can't stop it by pressing down onto the wound. You may be bleeding heavily from a monitor injury.

Causes of Bleeding
Von Willebrand's disease. You bruise easily, have frequent nosebleeds, bleed heavily from cuts or during menstrual periods, have blood in your urine or stool, and your joints are swollen and painful. Von Willebrand's disease is caused by the lack of a clotting factor in the blood and cannot be prevented. Medications sch as aspirin that promote bleeding should not be used. Women with a severe form of the disease may be able to control unusally heavy menstrual bleeding with prescribed oral contraceptives.

Hemophilia. You are a male who has noticed that ou bruise and bleed more easily and frequently than most people. Or you have an infant son whose knees and elbows began to bruise and bleed as soon as he started crawling. Hemophilia is an inherited disease in which people lack a specific protein needed for normal clotting. Today there is effective treatment, but you still have to be very careful.

Thrombocytopenia. You have nosebleeds, your cuts bleed for a long time, your periods have become much haavier, and you get a rash of tiny bright and dark red apots wherever your skin is irritated and sometimes even where it's not. This illness, usually resulting from a recent viral infection, medication, or no clear cause, but sometimes associated with leukemia or Hodgkin's disease, is caused by a low level of platelets in the blood.

Self-Care Measures.
Stop the flow of blood immediately. Follow these steps:

• Press down firmly and directly over the wound for 5 to 10 minutes, using a clean cloth or gauze pad. Do not use a tourniquet.
• Put on a snug adhesive bandage, or wrap a cloth around the wound if it's on an arm or leg
  Elevate the limb or body part that's bleeding.
• If blood oozes through, put another bandage on; don't remove the original, or the bleeding may start again
• When the bleeding has completely stopped, cleanse the wound. Use butterfly bandages to hold the sides together if the wound gapes
• Styptic pencils can stop bleeding from small nicks
• For nosebleeds, sit quietly and press firmly with your thumb and fingers just below the nasal bone to keep the nostrils tightly closed for at least 5 minutes. Do not put your head between your legs or ice on your forehead. If blood continues to drip down the back of your throat, call your nurse information service or doctor.
  
  Prevention
  If you are prone to bleeding, take acetaminophen. instead of aspirin or ibuprofen, for pain or headaches. Check with your nurse information service or doctor about the use of anticoagulants, especially before surgery.