Epistaxis plugs

I've just discovered I'm not too old for my mum to teach me a new item of vocabulary.  I came in tonight to find a neatly prepared box of 'epistaxis plugs' on the table. Google tells me that epistaxis is bleeding from the nose -  Mum has been getting lots of nosebleeds lately, I think because of one of her meds. She's out at her church housegroup at the moment - a friend comes to pick her up and drop her back and I think she might have meant to take the plugs with her.  I hope no epistaxis occurs while she's out. 

The extra is of Mum when she was a nurse, Charing Cross Hospital, London, circa 1955.