Unfiltered Story #257231

It is the middle of the SARS outbreak in Ontario and I am 12 years old. I am home sick from school with the usual coughing and fever but after a couple days, I’m coughing so hard and so often that it feels like I’m choking. The additional strain on my chest causes me to start vomiting. Though already an upsetting experience for me, we find fresh blood in my puke and my mom rushes us to the E.R.

We are in the waiting room, surrounded by lots of masked people for several hours, before being moved to another room and wait a couple more hours to see a doctor. The entire time I am getting more and more anxious; I have been to the hospital dozens of times before now, but it was never for myself, and I’m terrified that I’ve suddenly contracted a horrible illness.

Finally the doctor arrives.

Doctor: *after checking me out* “Nope, just the flu. Nothing to be worried about.”

Mom: “What about the blood?!”

Doctor: “Oh. Just a nosebleed, draining down the back of her throat. It’s very common, actually.”

I was bewildered. The doctor sent us home with orders to rest and hydrate, and I was well enough to go back to school a day later.