You are playing a game outside, and your nose begins to bleed. You sit down and drink some water. After about an hour, the bleeding stops and you begin playing again. Then the bleeding comes back. What do you do if you normally do not have nose bleeds?

If you sit down for a second time, and you notice unexplained bruises covering your body, retrace your steps back to where you believe the bruises occurred and the bleeding began.  If you discover that you were actually hit, it is probably a normal nose bleed or a bruise from a contact sport, so do not panic. If you can not identify the cause of the bleeding and bruising, you might have a genetic disorder known as von Willebrand Disease (vWD).  Today 1% of the earth’s population has a bleeding disorder.