"We've got a bleeder!"

In the elementary schools, they often use the buddy system to walk each other down to the nurse's office. I knew there must be something exciting when a kid came in with two escorts tailing him. One of the girls that came in with a boy clutching a handful of tissues around his nose shrieked, "Mrs. Nurse, we've got a bleeder!" Boy, was she right. I shooed the escorts back to class, pulled up a trash can and could see the blood quickly soaking the tissues. I asked the little boy to switch tissues but he was scared to do so. When he finally did, he was not the most coordinated of children and took his time - and while he took his time, we both got to watch blood from his nose run into the trash can like a little waterfall. I was as fascinated as he was with it, except I didn't feel the need to scream excitedly, "Do you see this?!" Of course I see it kid, except the point is to contain the blood to the trash can so keep your head over it if you're just going to let it drip. I had to grab his head and hold it over the trash can until he figured out how to reach for the tissues while bent over. At another tissue exchange, he pulled out a gigantic clot and was just as excited to see this, again making sure I was watching too. I love it when kids like this come in, I think because I get to teach them something - even if it's only best practices of tissue exchanging in a nosebleed.