elfs | "We recommend you take your daughter to the ER..."

This morning, as I was settling down to work, I got a call from Kouryou-chan's school. "Hi," said the voice on the other end of the phone. "I have your little girl next to me and, she can tell you the story of how it happened, but it seems she has a bead stuck up her nose. We recommend that you come get her and take her to the ER to have it removed."

Oh, lovely. So I get in the car and hurtle down to the school, where Omaha has already arrived. We get in the car. There's a little bit of blood dripping down Kouryou's nose; she apparently tried to get it out herself with a pair of tweezers. She's miserable, and terrified. "I'm scared they're going to have to cut my nose off to get it out!"

We assured her that no such thing will happen; we know of at least two other kids in Kouryou's age group who've done similar things and both of them still have their noses. So we get to the ER where the triage nurse takes us in and reassure her that she's going to be fine, and then we get checked in.

And then we wait. And wait. And wait some more. Kouryou curls up in our laps as lunchtime approaches, complaining that she's hungry and scared. Finally, we get admitted. The nurse checks her again, and looks up her nose with a flashlight and sure enough, there it is.

And we wait some more. The doctor is a busy man today. Finally he arrives. He had a great bedside manner and was very good with Kouryou. After explaining what he's going to do, pulls a small flexible scoop out of his pocket and in less than a minute, without much squirming, the bead comes out.

What a disaster. Kouryou-chan was much better after all that. We went home and had lunch.