ER or Urgent Care

[Anonymous]

My 80 yr old dad just called. His nose has been bleeding for 4 hrs. He’s on blood thinners. Can urgent care handle this? I really don’t want to go to the ER if we can avoid it.

[Anonymous]

ER (and/or Call his doctor’s after hours line and they will say ER.)

[Anonymous]

I would go to the ER just to be safe. It's probably the blood thinners that are making it bleed that much but you want to be sure. Blood thinners take days to get out of your system btw.

[Anonymous]

I think I’d say ER too. My mother always goes to Urgent Care first, and they always end up referring her to the ER anyway. I suspect with older people (at least those with other health problems), Urgent Care doesn’t like to take chances.

[Anonymous]

ER. Urgent Care just isn’t good for anything remotely complicated or mysterious.

[Anonymous]

No, do not go to urgent care for this.

Whenever there are potential drug interaction issues (like with Warfarin or another blood thinner) you need to go to the ER or a specialist.

[Anonymous]

Op here. We’re at the ER.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. We’re at the ER.

Hope he’s ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. We’re at the ER.

That's for reporting back. Wishing you everything is ok.

[Anonymous]

My dad ended up in the ER after falling while on blood thinner. They had to give him something to reverse the blood thinner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ER. Urgent Care just isn’t good for anything remotely complicated or mysterious.

Exactly. Urgent Care is good for basic Doctor's Office visits, after hours. Best when you are pretty sure what the issue is but need a test to confirm, or just need a diagnosis like 'Yup, poison Ivy" and some steroids for it.

[Anonymous]

Any updates OP? This was a few days ago.

[Anonymous]

We go through this every few months with my mother. ER is best. They have a medication they can put right into the nose. And they have clamps that they use to stop the bleeding. Follow up with an ENT. The ENT was able to locate the location of the bleed and do some kind of procedure to help reduce the number of nosebleeds. My mom is also on a blood thinner. She has had several mini strokes over the last few years. She has fully recovered from the strokes, but still gets the nosebleeds occasionally.

Hope your dad has fully recovered.

[Anonymous]

I cannot believe someone would ask this about done one bleeding for four hours.
FOUR HOURS.
BLEEDING.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot believe someone would ask this about done one bleeding for four hours.
FOUR HOURS.
BLEEDING.

Oh calm down. It was a nose bleed. This is pretty common and not an actual emergency until it has been a day or more. Most of it is mucous anyway.