clots anyone?

And the one that takes the cake (warning not for the faint of heart; seriously). Shortly after the 4 o’clock shows started (before both of the previous anecdotes) two girls came in to buy tickets for the 7 o’clock Saw II. They give me the usual banter, pretending to be offended that I don’t think they look old enough. According to their ids they are both 17 so I sell them their tickets and they leave. Thirty seconds later they come back in the door with one girl holding her hand to her face trying to stop her nose from bleeding. I hand her friend some paper towels and direct them toward the bathrooms. As they walk by I hear the girl mumbling something like “Holli I am scared… Holly I’m scared...” The friend turns to me and says she needs the phone to call an ambulance. While I silently scoff at the idea of calling an ambulance for a bloody nose, I tell her that I will call them and she should go with her friend.

The operator informs me that once they get here it will be up to her whether or not to go with them, so I comply with her request and ask that one be sent over. So, the two girls are in the bathroom along with one of my employees and I am lingering in the lobby waiting for the paramedics to show up. At this point I am feeling rather calm. You know “all in a days work.” I turn around to see my employee coming out of the bathroom. She tells me that apparently this girl had just had some kind of surgery and is not sure what is going on. While I silently wondered what kind of cosmetic surgery seventeen year old girls are having these days, I notice Holli coming out of the bathroom and walk up to the concession trash like she is preparing to vomit. My gut tells me that this is a very bad sign and that I need to see what is going on in there.

I enter the girl’s bathroom following the trail of blood across the tile, and see the last thing I would have ever imagined I’d see. She is leaning over the bathroom sink with blood covering her hands and most of the area around her mouth. Her hands are gripping the edge of the counter top and her whole body is trembling with sheer panic. The white sink and countertop are covered with blood, with splatters also on the wall and mirror. On top of that there is still a small stream coming out of her mouth.



While blood has never bothered me in the past, my gut tightened and a sharp spike appeared in my stomach. I had never seen this much blood before and I was pretty sure this had nothing to do with a bloody nose. As I got closer to her I realized that what I thought had been her tongue was actually a blood clot hanging from her mouth. In fact, the bottom of the sink was covered in them. I put my hand on her shoulder and told her to look at me. She turned her head ever so slightly and moved her eyes in my direction. Small streaks of tears ran down both sides of her face and while her eyes did not focus on me I knew that she was listening. I had no idea what I was going to say but I started talking. I told her that help was on the way and tried to assure her that while it looked gross, and probably felt even more so, that the clumps were a normal part of her body trying to stop the bleeding. I admitted that I didn’t know why she was bleeding but that is why we were getting help. As I was talking a chill went over my whole body and I suddenly felt terrible for her. I know it sounds ridiculous but next thing I knew I was telling her that I was sorry that this was happening to her. I am not sure how much she heard, or how much she will remember, but she did stop whimpering and her arms were not shaking nearly as much.

At that point I heard the sirens and came out of the bathroom to direct them in. The first one to arrive was a police officer with the paramedics right behind him. I waited just outside the bathroom as they asked her questions and brought the stretcher in. It turns out that she had had her tonsils out the week before and not some kind of cosmetic surgery. They wheeled her out as she held a plastic bag to her mouth with a trickling of blood running down the inside of the bag. I broke out some gloves and paper towels and started the clean up. It didn’t take too long.

A few hours later Holli came back in to thank us for our help and to tell us that the girl was going to be fine. Reportedly the girl had coughed or sneezed really hard and had managed to pop the stitches on both sides of her throat from her recent tonsillectomy. They scheduled her for an ‘emergency’ surgery that night and got her all fixed up.

Well, all in a days work I guess. But many more days like that and I am going to need a significant pay raise.