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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

epistaxis galore


I was told by RR that one of my students had a literal nosebleed seconds after she read the essay part of my midterm test. I asked which test was it, and he said “Survey of English and American Literature.” His graphic description of how two vermillion drops luxuriously oozed out of the unwitting student’s nostrils had me wondering, so I checked my manuscript and reread the question:
"Make a comparative analysis of the British epic novels The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis in terms of:
1. Fantastic elements
2. Christian theme
3. Literary quality"
Huh? My Pangga theorized the correlation between the epistaxis and the discussion portion and I quote him verbatim:
“Sa kakaisip at pilit pag-intindi sa topic na ‘di talaga maintindihan kahit anong pilit, ‘yung brain desperately need[s] sustansya kaya dumudoble supply ng dugo pataas then ‘pag ‘di kinayan [sic] ng brain, [i]nilalabas ‘yung sobrang dugo sa ilong.” If that were true, I suppose other cephalic cavities like the ears, the eyes sockets and the mouth should have leaked blood, too.
I researched and here’s what I found from bbc.co.uk:
"Many nosebleeds are idiopathic - that is there is no obvious cause, or the cause is unknown. But in children frequent colds and the drying effect of central heating can cause irritation of the delicate mucus membrane that lines the nose. This becomes inflamed, crusted or cracked, and is much more likely to bleed.
Bumps to the nose, especially once it's inflamed, and vigorous nose blowing can trigger a bleed. Rare causes include tumours and thrombocytopenia, a shortage of platelets - the tiny cells in the blood that plug damaged blood vessels. This causes problems with the blood's clotting mechanism, especially in children."
It was the second case of nasal bleeding that I know of which happened just when some complicated scholastic lesson was within listening range. Jel and I were once studying for her Physics finals when her maid, having eavesdropped our spirited dialogue regarding the application of centrifugal and centripetal forces on such regular objects like the ferris wheel, started to drip red liquid from her smelling organ. Jel’s room is air-conditioned, so could it have been the jargon? The whole scenario suddenly reminded me of a gay friend who, hearing some Anglophonic colegialas chatting in the cinema popcorn queue, clamped his nose before declaring “I hate English!”

5 comments:

  1. kelangan talagang may scientific at linguistic background and post na ito ha.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3:53 PM

    hehehe. nakakatuwa naman itong post na to.. very informative,

    kainis ang dami kong errors sa txt ko.

    di mo cnabi haha.

    pangga

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
  4. nosebleeds and stuff
    love this post!!
    Kakatuwa at kakatawa...
    Sana ako student mo sir gusto ko sagutin ung mga essay questions... love those novels...

    ReplyDelete