So much for commenting that I was normal yesterday. Immediately after midnight, I sneezed once and to my horror, the phlegm and saliva I spat out were bloody. And for the next ten minutes, I was at my bathroom's basin coughing out blood, from the throat.

I woke Mummy up and she was shocked too. Quickly, Mummy gave me a glass or iced water to gurgle. After gurgling 3 cups of iced water, the blood flowing out subsided. Partly also because my throat was very dry and I have no more phlegm or saliva to spit out.

Then, for the next hour, the little phlegm which I coughed out, was not bloody. We waited because we are not sure if my condition really warrants going A&E. Mummy went to sleep at 2.30am. I drank some water then.

At 3am, as I was going to bed, I felt some phlegm swelling in my throat and spat out using a piece of tissue. To my utmost horror, it was bloody. Then I rushed to the bathroom and continued to spat out lotsa blood. I shouted for Mummy and when she saw me at the bathroom spitting out those bloody phlegm/saliva, she was terrified. We decided to go A&E.

Mummy called a friend who lives next block and asked me to change (I was in night dress then) to go A&E. Think I was spitting out blood for five minutes at the bathroom before I went to change and hurried downstairs. Brought a plastic bag along for coughing out the bloody phlegm.

Mummy's friend is so nice and we routed to Ang Mo Kio to pick Hubby up to join us. Coincidentally, Dear went home last night after dinner as he has a facial appointment today. Anyway, we reached A&E about 4am.

We were quickly registered and a nurse ushered me in while Mummy and Hubby waited outside. By then, my throat was too dry and I was no longer coughing or spitting. Was attended to by the A&E doctor on duty and when he checked my throat, could find no visible bloody wound. So, they called for the ENT doctor on duty.

I waited about 30 minutes before the lady doctor from ENT arrived. She checked me like what the A&E doctor did and said no bleeding externally. I muttered that if I were to drink water, I would definitely be spitting out lotsa blood. She sighed and asked if I could drink then. I told her I would try and immediately drank the cup of iced water she gave me thereafter. As I drank the cup of water, I had a sinking feeling that the whole bloody episode with blood-filled saliva/phlegm spitting will start soon.

The ENT doctor walked away for about 5 minutes to bring the equipment over for nose endorscope. She said that since there were no external bleeding, she just wanted to check if there was internal bleeding. Before she inserted the scope into my nose, she commented that I could go home and just needed to use iced water to gurgle to stop any bleeding. But I told her that there was too much blood to stop the bleeding.

She looked exasperated, as if I was lying and did not believe me, partly because when she was checking me earlier, when I spat, there was no blood. But I do know, it's because my throat was super dry and there was nothing to spit out.

Anyway, she did the endorscope on me, inserting into my nose and then leading to the back of my throat. It hurt. I hated that feeling. Immediately when she took out the scope, I spat or vomitted and there was lotsa blood. From that moment onwards, I just kept coughing or spitting out blood. Lotsa blood. The doctor was stunned.

It was so bad that I had to get up from the bed I was at to go to the basin and when offered the cups of iced-water to gurgle, I did as told. Gurgled the iced water and spat out. Whatever water that was spat out were bloody. I mean, like fresh blood. The doctor asked if I could try not to force out the blood and to follow her to the consultative room. I retorted that I did not deliberately forced the blood-filled phlegm out, instead it was swelling behind my throat and I had to spit it out.

I finally managed to follow her to a room, about 20 metres away. There, she asked me to sit down. I could not. Upon reaching the room, I raced to the basin and kept coughing out bloody phlegm. The nurse accompanying us was shocked too. The doctor held me to sit down and started putting some suction thingy into my mouth. She said she needed to suck out the rest of the blood filling my mouth first before she can burnt the blood vessels which are spurting out the blood non-stop.

But as she did the suction (maybe a few seconds), I could feel phlegm swelling behind my throat and coughed out blood once more. She pushed me to sit still and said I have to try to not cough out blood. I told her I would try but I could not help it.

Finally, she asked me to hold a plate under my chin and said that even if blood or saliva were to flow out of my mouth, just ignore, so that she can suck the blood then insert a stick to burn the blood vessels. We tried and finally after her doing the suction 6 times and successfully inserting a stick inside 4 times for 2 minutes each time, we are done. The bleeding miraculously stopped.

I gurgled lotsa iced water after that for 10 minutes before the bleeding stopped. I was then sent to the observation ward and the nurse said the doctor would see me again in an hour to see if the bleeding stopped.

Finally, at 7.15am, the doctor looked me up and asked there was still blood. I told her slight blood when I spat now after drinking water half an hour ago. She said ok and I could go home. I asker her what happened to me and she said that the back of my throat were grazed and the blood vessels were exposed, and spurting out blood. She advised me not to drink hot liquid as that will dilate the blood vessels causing the bleeding all over again.

I informed her that I was not drinking any hot water but there was still bleeding. She said she was not sure too but abrasion like this can occur anytime during recovery period and asked me to be more careful with my diet, especially to avoid hot and spicy food or liquid.

So I was discharged and got home about 8+am. Was so tired and immediately, Hubby and I collapsed onto bed.

This whole episode has indeed been very tramautising for me, Hubby and Mummy. Just pray hard that this will be the first and last occurrence.