The UFO (unidentified food object) Removed and Identified:  It's Not What I Thought It Would Be



The drama of the stinky nose continued WAY past July.  On September 9, I took Hadley to a local pediatrician.  He looked in her nose, agreed with me that there was a strong, rotten smell, and told me there was not a thing he could or would do.  I got a prescription for Omnicef and was told to find an ENT.

On September 14, Phil and I took Hadley to an ENT about 45 miles away.  He looked up her nose and told us he didn't see a thing.  The odor was also not present since she had been on antibiotics for a few days by then.  He told us to finish the medicine and call back to schedule a scope if the odor returned.  That was on a Tuesday.  By Friday evening, the odor was back with a vengeance!

Phil called and scheduled a scope for September 22 at the hospital in Liberal, KS.  We had to be there (45 miles away) by 7:00 a.m.  The doctor really didn't think anything was up her nose, but he agreed to do the scope to appease me.  I was insistent that something was still up there. 

The medical staff took Hadley just before 9:00 a.m.  About ten minutes later, the doctor showed up with a specimen cup and this:

What is it?  Some sort of felt or fleece.

How big was it?  About an inch long, about a centimeter wide.

How long has it been up there?

At least since the beginning of July...maybe a lot longer.

When the ENT first inserted the scope (it had a camera on the end), he didn't find anything.  He kept looking because he was in there and we wanted him to find something.  As he was moving from the nose into the back of the throat (the posterior rhinopharynx, to be exact), he found the chunk of fabric.  He believes it was there due to the probing of the ER doctor done in July.  The ENT said there was no way a two-year-old could have lodged it back that far all on her own.   If he hadn't kept looking, he would have just pulled the camera scope out and told us he didn't find a thing.  Mini miracle number one. 

The ENT said she was lucky she didn't develop a staph infection which could have led to MRSA or sepsis.  Any one of those could have proven deadly if left unchecked.  Mini miracle number two.  I thank God for watching over our little Hadley Sue.  She is now perfectly healthy, happy, and odor- (and object) free.

Eww!

UFOs

Was it a pea?

Was it a green bean?

Maybe a kernel of corn?

A noodle perhaps?

Or even a Yogo?

There are some questions without answers, and these are a few examples.  My daughter (she's two, almost three) has had a smell about her for a couple of weeks.  I kept thinking she was spitting on her hands (not sure why she'd do that) and rubbing the spit on her face.  She smelled like a dirty little kid who hadn't bathed in a few days.  I'd scrub her face and hands to no avail.  She still stunk like old dry spit.  

Flash forward two weeks:  now as I'm leaning over in front of her to help her put on her flip-flops, she smells like sewer water or a dead mouse (whichever is more rank).  I lean in closer and realize it's coming from her nose.  Upon further inspection (performed by her dad with a flashlight) a huge chunk of "goo" was seen lodged in her right nostril about an inch-and-a-half in. 

After a long drive home (we'd been on vacation in New Mexico) and an even longer stint in the local ER, the "goo" (which couldn't be persuaded to come out with suction) was pushed back down her throat and she swallowed it.  I know, I'm gagging as I type.  She was strapped to a papoose board to restrain her (she escaped twice--should have named her Houdini!).  She screamed bloody murder for about 15 minutes straight, got a nosebleed, and had to basically eat something rotten.  Bad day for her.

Now, her nose is smelling (the function, not the odor) again, and she doesn't smell (the odor, not the function).  Please, kids, don't put UFOs (that's unidentified food objects) up your nose ever again!