Friday 19 October 2012

Cannes Lion Award for The Guardian's "Three Little Pigs"

This awesome ad for the Guardian Newspaper won a Cannes Lion award and it's not hard to see why! It's intelligent, and shows how everyone who reads the Guardian gets involved and goes from topic to topic, turning a simple crime into a good hard look at the society failures from the GFC. Brilliant!

Friday 12 October 2012

Plagued by nosebleeds

My son, when he has a cold is plagued by nosebleeds.  He often has nosebleeds but I thought he was getting a little better.  However, this latest upper respiratory tract has caused him to have torrential nosebleeds, even whilst sleeping.  I am concerned because he gets it when he's sleeping - he wakes up choking because blood is pouring down the back of his nose and then he's crying and coughing.  He could drown in his blood if he was dead asleep.

I work with a lot of Ear Nose and Throat surgeons, and one I am closest to, advised first that we just wait it out.  However, I am worried with the continuing nosebleeds and blood loss that he could get anaemic or even die in his sleep.  However, the treatment of these nosebleeds is most likely nasal cautery.  There are risks with this, such as septal perforation, which are not without their own consequences.  And even after the first cautery, it seems to be bilateral, these nosebleeds.  I would have to get both sides cauterised, and that seems like high risk for septal perforation to me.

My poor son. He wakes up crying and saying he wants to sleep whilst I'm trying to press his nose and keep him from dripping blood onto the carpet.  It's heartbreaking to hear him say "Mama, sleep?" because he's so tired and he doesn't want to be going through the nose compressions, face wiping, clothes changes and sprays of otrivin to his nose and just go back and get a good night's rest.

My poor little tyke.  Mummy will think of a solution soon.