This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/emflux on 2024-11-21 23:18:48+00:00.
After cleaning the dishes and locking all the doors and windows, I go to my bathroom and prepare myself for bed. I floss my teeth, then brush my teeth, then wash my face with a cleanser, then apply facial moisturizer, then go to my bed and doom scroll before I fall asleep.
Hoo hoo
As I walk to my bed after applying the moisturizer, I look out the window and notice two glowing amber eyes gazing at me at the top of the pine tree.
My favourite great horned owl is back! Good ole Alex, coming back every year after her winter hiatus and just a day or so before the snow melts. I assume that she is female since Alex demonstrates typical nest building behaviour. Too bad she never has a mate to share it with.
I put on my winter coat, open the door, and walk onto the balcony of my 5th level condo to take a good look at her. However, I cannot make out her shape this time. That's strange, considering there's not many pines near the top of the tree.
I arose to a beautiful red sunrise. This would be a perfect time to grab a photo from my balcony. Especially due to the clear skies, warm wind, and green grass.
Unfortunately, I woke up miserably. I couldn't appreciate it due to a throbbing migraine in my forehead and large stains of dried blood on my pillow and blankets. I quickly checked myself in the mirror and identified that I am bleeding from my left nostril. However, no amount of tissue paper could control the bleeding.
My wall clock says it's 6:14 AM. I calculated that if I head to the hospital right now, I should have enough time to be at the office by 9:00 AM assuming no major health issues.
I arrived at the hospital in 20 minutes and saw no one at the triage. A small stroke of fortune for me as there are usually 30 people or so people waiting for medical attention.
The nurse signaled me, and I approached the desk. I handed Helen my driver's ID and medical card. I gave her a rundown of my symptoms. She noticed that my nose was still bleeding and was given several cotton balls to control it. After taking my blood pressure and temperature, I was led to a small typical doctor's room with a computer and patient's bed.
Dr. Miranda saw me right away. She checked my nose with an otoscope and found extensive and deep damage in my nasal cavity. I told her that I woke up this morning like this and do not recall doing anything that would cause such a terrible migraine and nosebleed. The doctor was perplexed by this and stated that I would need to undergo an emergency MRI scan of my head to check for any possible brain damage.
After being thoroughly questioned of any previous medical procedures that involved sticking a piece of metal in me, in which I said no to all of them, I changed into the typical hospital gown. Before storing my belongings into a locker, I sent a quick message to my boss, letting him know that I am in the hospital, but I should be back in the office in no time.
I gave Helen the locker key and she put it in a cabinet. She told me that she double checked my medical records and confirmed that I had no procedures in the past 12 years in this country that involved inserting metal inside of my body.
"Doctor's orders", she said, "especially since patients with possible brain damage can forget important details."
I followed both Helen and Dr. Miranda into the MRI room and saw the typical full body machine that you would see in movies. You know, the long half cylinder that would give you claustrophobia, which thankfully I did not have.
After laying on the mobile bed, Dr. Miranda spoke to me about the procedure.
"Alright. This machine is quite old but accurate enough to check for any damages in your brain. When I start it, you will hear a sound similar to a jet engine starting. After a few seconds, it will get quite loud. Wear these ear plugs. This procedure will last anywhere between 40 to 50 minutes. Do you have any questions for me?"
I told her no. After putting on the ear plugs, they pushed me gently inside the machine. The door shut a few minutes later and they spoke to me through the speaker.
"Ok. We are starting the machine now."
I could hear the fans whirring. It was indeed very loud, even with the ear plugs. At least it was tolerable.
Suddenly, I felt a sharp, stinging pain in my nose. It became sharper as the fans got louder. After a few seconds, I started to choke as a gush of warm liquid suddenly irritated my throat. The recognizable taste of blood reached my tongue as I started to cough violently. I pulled out a cotton ball covering my left nostril to reduce the flow into my throat, a large gush of blood and possibly clotting came pouring out and staining my gown violently.
I couldn't scream. Even if I did, they couldn't hear me.
So, I shook my legs erratically to grab anyone's attention.
When the fans reached its steady, loudest, whirring sound, my head violently banged the MRI machine. Both my nose bleed and migraine worsened. As I recoiled and attempted to deduce what caused my head to move violently, it happened again.
Only this time, my head stuck to the MRI machine.
My body felt weak. I couldn't fight this unnatural phenomenon that suddenly decided that I should suffer immeasurably. All I could do was panic and hope for the best.
As if things couldn't get worse, I heard a loud crack right in the middle of my face. At the base of my nose. Inside both my left and right nostrils.
A surge of sharp, dull, burning, and throbbing pain reached me. I started to cry profusely. I couldn't take it anymore.
In all this chaos, I didn't notice the complete halting of the fans, a sudden slam of the door, and my head falling back onto my pillow.
I woke up. Not on my comfy bed nor in my comfy apartment. But in one of the hospital rooms. I was the only patient in it.
My head felt constrained and bandaged. I am too afraid to know why. So, I scanned the room with my eyes and noticed stars in a dark sky outside the window. The room lights were on and very bright.
Helen was sitting in the corner of the room opposite of the door. I tried to talk to her, but my speech was slurred. She heard me and told me that she will inform Dr. Miranda that you are awake.
I waited for what felt like hours.
Dr. Miranda finally arrived along with Helen and another doctor. He introduced himself as Dr. Stewart, the head surgeon of this facility.
I asked them why the head surgeon was involved and what happened to me.
"Let me assure you", Dr. Miranda said, "that what happened to you was extremely unusual and highly unlikely. Your medical records do not indicate any invasive procedures that introduced any foreign metal entities inside of your body. Your answers were clear and concise, further confirming that this was not the case. You may have also not noticed it but just before you entered the MRI room, you went through a metal detector and triggered no alarm."
"Yet. Somehow, you had a metal device attached to your skull. Specifically, onto your nasal bone.", Dr. Stewart said. "It was a small sphere, roughly 5mm in diameter. However, it somehow manages to crack and steal your entire nasal bone. I am sorry to say that your nose was severely damaged as a result."
I was in shock. I couldn't say a single word. Dr. Stewart continued.
"After imaging your skull with x-rays, I made the critical decision to reattach your nasal bone and your nose as we had enough time to do the procedure safely with minimum negative side effects to your body."
"My nose?" I exclaimed.
"That's right. Your nose. It separated from your body."
"I thought you said severely damaged!"
"That's what I meant. As for the reattachment procedure, it went on without any complications on our end. Because your nose somehow detached cleanly from your head, we were able to reattach it with little issue. Unfortunately, you might not be able to smell or taste like before. This will sadly be lifelong.”
I wanted to sob, but my entire face was in pure agony. Besides my photography, cooking was everything to me. It gave me sheer joy and happiness to express my art and my emotions through taste and smell, and to share my creations with friends and loved ones. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? But now, this could be stolen away from me. I couldn’t bear the thought.
Dr. Miranda spoke, interrupting my thoughts. “After we pulled you out of the MRI, you were knocked out for a long time. 17 days to be precise."
"17 days?" I gasped loudly.
"Yes. We don’t understand why or how. We ran every possible and conceivable test on you during that time and found that all your vitals were normal. Yet somehow you remained comatose. Incidentally, you might feel weak when you start moving due to possible minor muscle atrophy. Do you live with or near family by the way?" Dr. Miranda inquired.
"No. I live alone."
"Well, your boss, Barry, got in touch with us after he tried calling you frantically just before your MRI incident. He and your colleagues were quite worried about you. They said they haven't seen or heard from you for three days."