Kids Shoving Crap Up Their Noses: Part II

It occurred to me this morning that I forgot to blog about the most recent incident with my kids that had me going and seriously questioning how intelligent my children are.

The last "shoving crap up the nose" incident happened with Grace, when she took that tiny rubber "coaster" off of a little statue-type thing and we ended up at the ENT the next day to get it out. Until that last incident with Grace, Annelise had been inserting various tiny objects, such as leaves from celery and Q-Tips and other nostril-sized objects. I thought she, along with Grace, had finally figured out that it was on the list of Very Bad Things To Do.

I was wrong. So, so, so very wrong. Wednesday, just before 5 PM, Anneliese took a small, round, blue, craft gem that was exactly the size of her nostril. She inserted it into her right nostril. As soon as she realized it wasn't coming out and wasn't a joke, she came to tell me what she had done. She was very nervous, so I knew not to panic her. I asked her to show me, and she did. I saw it in there, but I also knew that if I reached for it that it would just go further back. Not even tweezers would work.

So I tried to get her to sneeze. It didn't work.

I tried to get her to pretend she was blowing out a candle with her nose. She inhaled rather than exhaled.

It got to where I knew it was still in there but couldn't see it. She also kept sticking her fingers up there trying to get it. She was clearly uncomfortable about it, and I was starting to worry, so I called the ENT to set up an appointment for her. Lucky us, there weren't any doctors available to treat her. I called the local walk-in clinics, and they had just closed for the day. I knew from my experience with Grace that the gem was too far back for our pediatrician to get it out. He didn't have the appropriate tool to reach it safely, as the ENT did.

My only option, per the ENT Nurse, was to take her to the ER. She recommended getting it taken care of ASAP since she's so young (2 yrs 5 mos). So when Manny got home from work, I had him stay with Juliana and Grace, and I took Anneliese to the children's hospital ER in the next town over. Poor Anneliese, though... she was napping and I had to wake her up and she was pissed as hell. She cried the whole ride over, and made me carry her from the parking garage to the ER. She let the nurses check her out but cried the whole time, which elevated her temperature and her blood pressure. The doctor checked her out too, and could just see the edge of the little gem, and thought for a few minutes.

Next, she directed the nurses to gently hold Anneliese's arms and legs still. The doctor held Anneliese's head still, and gently plugged up her left nostril. Then, I had to tell her I was going to kiss her... but she was crying because strangers were touching her... and I had to blow forcefully into her mouth as if I were doing CPR. Don't you know, the gem shot out of her nostril?!?!? What the frick kind of neat trick was that? I'll tell you what kind... the kind that every mother should be made aware of.

As soon as the doctor saw the gem, she scooped it up, exclaimed how pretty it was, and wiped the mucous from it. She put it in a little baggie, showed Anneliese, and then tossed it into the hazardous waste container. That actually made me laugh. Of course, Anneliese kept whimpering for the doctor to give her back the "star" that just shot out of her nose. You'd think she'd learned!

On the way home, I told her how proud of her I was, and asked her what she wanted for dinner. It was now about 8 PM, and I knew she was starving because she actually managed to ask a nurse for some milk. She asked for "guggets and fresh fries at Dug Dunnald's." She's been wearing her pretty purple hospital bracelet ever since the incident. She likes how it looks, and the fact that it has her name on it. She only took it off for her bath today, and put it right back on.

{{{sigh}}} It's never boring being a mom.