> > (I could tell a *really* nasty story about a blood clot....)
>
> Rule 6.

I guess I usually don't treat nosebleeds how I'm supposed to - most of the time I walk around after just a bit instead of sitting and pinching my nose forever. I'll make sure it stops bleeding, of course, but inevitably my nosebleeds happen while I'm in the middle of something or have to leave in five minutes or things like that.

Anyway... (WARNING: please stop reading if you don't like nasty stories.) My nose bled one morning, and after a bit I got it to stop. But I guess it hadn't fully healed, because later on that day I was coughing up bits of blood. Now, it didn't worry me at all, because it had happened before, and I knew it was just a bit of blood draining from the back of my nose. So I'd rinse my throat out with water and look to see if everything was out.

Well, one glance in the mirror showed this big blob of red starting to move down my throat. There was nothing to do but cough it up in the sink as well. (I knew it wouldn't be pleasant, but of course I wasn't going to swallow it; I had already swallowed a little blood at the beginning and even that bit made my stomach feel odd.)

So I did, and it had to have been bigger than all the other clots I've coughed up combined. As it lay in the sink, I was struck by the fact that just a moment before, that thing was actually in the back of my throat. Even now, when I think about it, I can still feel that slimy mass of congealed blood sliding down my throat and through my mouth.

Ga"This story deliberately written to sound as gross as possible, in order to give you, the reader, a little... er, *taste* of my experience."halia