I grew up with heavy nosebleeds for as long as I can remember, which followed with a fear of randomly bleeding out. The constant dryness eventually led to a hole in my nose. I attempted to fix the hole and the surgery went horribly wrong—I didn’t think I would make it out alive. During the whole experience, my eyes were opened to just how cruel the medical professionals can be in a time of crisis.

Later in life I was diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome. This is an autoimmune illness that directly affects the way your body hydrates itself. This results in many different eye, nose and mouth problems as well as many other things in the body, and was the direct cause of the nosebleeds for all these years.

I still live with this hole in my nose, and with the ongoing fear of it.