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

[elfs]

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.

Comments

[casualprofessor.livejournal.com]

The prevailing wisdom is that only boys did the stick-something-somewhere-it-doesn't-belong routine. So much for stereotypes...

[lionman.livejournal.com]

If she'd been having trouble breathing, they'd have gotten to her faster, of course. Those pesky people with breathing and chest problems always get put at the front of the line! ;-)

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Glad everything went well.

Erin was in the hospital this morning, too, but at least her visit was scheduled -- she had to get the tubes out of her ears. :-)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. Glad all is better now....

[mo-hair.livejournal.com]

i have to say that i've been waiting for this to happen to one of my two and am happily, but very, surprised it hasn't occurred yet. i'm the bead was retrieved so easily.

I hope it was the KIDS' ER

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

Because grownups' ER sucks rocks through a seive. I'm glad you had a good doc. I put a bean up my nose once, but got it out myself. It was most unpleasant while it was in there. Tell her about that, and maybe she'll feel a bit better. She's not the only person who has put something up her nose just because!

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

Tell her I'm very glad they didn't cut her nose off at the ER. :-)

[intrepid-reason.livejournal.com]

She is such a curious child I am not surprised. I am glad that she is ok.

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

OK, so - how'd it get in there?

Ouch!

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

"After explaining what he's going to do" It's so nice that the doctors these days take the time to talk to kids. Hopefully it wasn't too traumatic for her (or you two).

And yah, just what was her story?

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

I had a friend in college who said that as a small child he stuck a Cheerio so far up his nose they couldn't get it out. It never did come out...

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

When Younger Child was about 18 months old, she developed a funky smell. Itwas like she was dabbing rotting meat behind her ears. Nothing would get rid of the smell -- no bath, nothing. We couldn't figure out what what it was. Anyway, one day we were tipped off to the real problem, either because we caught her tearing apart a stuff animal or in the act -- I don't remember any more. Her dad took her to the ER, where they looked up her nasal passages and discovered large amounts of stuffing packed up into her sinuses. She'd evidently been secretly pulling stuffing out of a hole in a stuffed animal and pushing it up her nose, where it had packed in and become truly nasty. They used forceps and pulled multiple long pieces of stuffing out, along with err, vile gunk. She went on a course of antibiotics, and the nasty smell finally abated.

And I guess that makes her another exception to the "only boys do it" rule.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!! I'm so glad it was just a bead. heh.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Kouryou-chan had a hard time of telling us. What we were finally able to put together was that she was playing with the bead next to her nostril (she uses beads in her math education at school) and sniffed while she was doing it. It kind of jumped up her nose and got lodged. She then tried to remove it with a pair of tweezers, causing her nose to bleed, before she finally went to the teacher and told her.

[hlmt.livejournal.com]

Guh-ROSS!!

[mundens.livejournal.com]

I think that it's great she tried to fix the problem herself!

Glad it all came out OK!

gender prevalence

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

I've seen about half boys and half girls for this. Specimens have included a little plastic head from some sort of figurine in a boy's ear, and most recently, multiple pieces of a superball up a girl's nose on both sides (she'd apparently bitten it apart before inserting it). In the latter case the girl (about 18 months old) was so upset by the extraction attempts that mom wouldn't let me finish the job, so I referred them to ENT. Besides, there could have been pieces much deeper than I could see with my scope. At least with ears it's not too likely they'll pass the eardrum and get lost.

Cf. the ten-year-old with a BB embedded in his hand from the other day. It was deep, not palpable, and I wasn't inclined to mess with it -- fine if it had been in a butt or thigh or something, but a hand I'll leave to a hand surgeon. Mom was dismayed but understood. Sure enough, the hand surgeon decided to do it in the OR rather than as an office procedure, which I think validates my decision. Bummer that they didn't have insurance -- the kid's allowance is gonna take a hit for years to come.

- Eddie