The Goldfish Incident

Well we have officially survived our first "item stuck up the nose" incident. Now I know Henry stuck a chow mein noodle up there a few months back but that one was relatively easy to pull out. This time we're talking whole goldfish cracker.

It all went down a couple of weeks ago when I was in the kitchen and I heard screaming from the living room. Henry's screams simultaneously alerted me to a problem and woke up his sister who was napping in the other room. Imagine trying to deal with pulling a goldfish out of your son's nose while a baby cries in the background. Sometimes as a parent you have to assess the situation and chose which child to attend to first. Cracker in nose trumps baby crying in bouncer.

I run in and check his nose, sure enough there is a goldfish tail up there. Its visible and I start trying to pull it out with tweezers. Its a no go. I also try the nasal aspirator and this works! but it only brings it to a reachable position for tweezers and not fingers. While I grab the tweezers Henry sucks it right back up into his nose. He had been crying and sniffing and snorting his boogers. Well that was the last time it was even close to reachable. I called the doctor and set up an appointment. While we wait a couple of hours I try multiple times to retrieve the fish. As it is sitting in there it starts to get soggy which makes it hard to grab with the tweezers. I try and describe to him how to blow his nose instead of sucking in air. A failed attempt at blowing results in the cracker being sucked up and disappearing from view. Great.

At the doctor's office, she kind of doesn't believe me that the cracker is up there. She shows me through the microscope thing that his nasal cavity is clear. I figured he must have either sucked it into his sinuses or swallowed it. The doctor's lack of concern infuriates me. What if it starts rotting up there? During the exam she notices that he might be developing allergies and makes an appointment with an ENT. After that she sends us on our way. I am super annoyed.

Luckily our visit to the ENT a week later showed that there is nothing up his nose. He must have swallowed it. The ENT used a long noodle like camera to look up Henry's nose. There was nothing there. Henry was very brave and let the nurse hold his head as the camera was inserted. We also called the huge patient chair, "Darth Vader's Throne." I was worried that when he saw such an imposing chair that he would get nervous. Darth Vader's Throne did the trick.

Now when he snacks on fishies, he is careful to remind me he will not be sticking them up his nose. Lesson learned.


Hopefully...