A Night to Remember

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Yesterday Abby was holding an orange tic-tac in her hand. Held it for an hour and a half in fact. Then she suddenly looked at me and said, "I put the candy in my nose. Get it out!" I looked at her like she was crazy but yep, I could see a little orange sticking out of her nostril. Tried not to freak out. I had her blow her nose. But since she was crying, all the blowing accomplished was orange snot. I threw her into the car and we went to CareNow. Where we sat with lots of high school kids waiting for physicals. After an hour we saw the doctor who looked up her nose and couldn't find the tic-tac. Of course by this time Abby had stopped crying and judging by her sniffling, the orange candy coating was obviously gone. Now we were on the hunt for a white tic-tac. In our naivety we thought, "If the doctor can't find it, that's good right? That means it dissolved or went down her throat." Oh the innocence. Nope, the doctor said we had to go to an ER because it may have moved up into her sinuses.

Off to the hospital. Doctor comes in, looks up her nose, can't see it, and says, "It probably dissolved. I think she's fine, you'll just need to watch her. If she gets a bloody nose or says she has a headache, bring her back." We were relieved as he went to get Abby a popsicle. Turns out the doctor gave us false hope. Because when he came back he said, "You know, since no doctor actually saw the candy in her nose, we need to take an xray just to make sure she didn't aspirate it."

Crap. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a two year old still while they take chest xrays? Ridiculous.

Eventually the doctor comes back and asks if we happen to have any more tic-tacs. After I get them out of the car, the doctor apparently takes an xray of a single tic-tac. Why? To see if it matches what they see on her chest xray. Yep, it did.

So after 5 and 1/2 hours we found out that most of the tic-tac dissolved and then the rest of it went into her lung. Apparently she'll be fine. We just have to keep her healthy for a few days. And we have to remember to embarrass her with this story when she's a teenager.

Lessons learned yesterday:

- tic-tacs are perfectly shaped for a toddler's nostril.

- some candy may not melt in the hand, but they all melt in mucus.

- when going to the ER, don't forget to take a jacket. even if it is the middle of summer in Texas.

- although beads, marbles, and beans are frequently stuck in noses, a tic-tac was a new item for each of the 5 doctors we saw. Abby is obviously creative.

- we should probably stop joking about how Abby tends to "inhale" her snacks. not so funny now that it has actually happened.

- each of the 5 doctors who looked up her nose commented that her breath was minty fresh. this is probably a more severe way of going about fresh breath than most want to attempt, but still, it is apparently an option.

- somewhere out there is a radiologist technician who's telling his friends, "I've got to find a new job. Last night they made me take an xray of a tic-tac. Yeah, a single tic-tac. No, not a white one, an orange one. What's that about? I didn't go to school for 10 years to take pictures of candy."