Total TMI about my nose problems. I think I am going to have to go back to the cute ENT. Stop here if nosebleeds gross you out.→[More:]So I'd been having these frequent nosebleeds for years, to the point where walking down the street and merely EXISTING would cause a half-hour bleed and giant clots. No touching my nose or anything.

So we went in last week and the ENT said that his first step would be to do a chemical cauterization of the blood vessels down in the lower area. I think the bad bleeds were up top, in scope territory, but we tried this to start with. It stung, but I lived.

My question/problem: have any of you ever had cauterization? I know it's a pretty standard thing and all, but I worry that he didn't tell me anything about how it was supposed to be afterwards, and now I've completely fucked it up. Like, "There will be a giant scab but whatever you do, don't pick at it because that's the part that we want to turn into scar tissue."

Because it was immediately and horribly dry and crusty and painful. And now, a week later, I've had horrible dry crusties alternating with low-level bleeds pretty much all the time, particularly when I wake up. It itches and irritates and scrapes and just generally hurts like hell. It is Not Fun.

And I HAD to pick at it. I HAD to.

(I'm sorry...)