Where it all started (3)

It was either the first night or the second night when I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom that the unexpected happened. I sneezed. For those unfamiliar with rhino rockets, the act of sneezing is both painful and terrifying. I’m a loud and obnoxious sneezer. It’s forceful and the thought that a sneeze was coming was scary. I did everything to try and avoid it. You’d think that having something shoved in there would negate the reflex of sneezing, and a lot of times, it did. I had the burning sensation to sneeze that would elude me. The sensation would stay and would feel totally unfulfilling. This however was the exception.

With horrendous force, I sneezed. I immediately felt this relief. I could suddenly breathe clearly. Then the horror of what had transpired set in. The rhino rocket had become dislodged. At 3am, I might add. So I’m either faced with another ER visit, or hopefully a clear nose with no blood. A pleasant feeling, like Christmas morning, thumped in my heart when no blood came pouring out of my nose. It seemed that despite the short time it was in my nose, it had done its job. The rhino rockets are covered in a lubricant/coagulant. My best guess is that the coagulant helped keep me from yet another late night ER visit.

I had already called out of work thinking this medieval torture was to remain in a little longer. Satisfied that I wasn’t bleeding and exuberantly happy to be relieved of that thing, I went back to bed. Not really knowing that the next day was going to be one of the worst days of my life.