Yesterday the resident three-year-old boy, in a moment of supreme three-year-old boyishness found a styrofoam Itsy-Bead-Sie (yes, that's their real name--truly), and realized it fit quite well in his olfactory orifice.   Evidently he was quite persistent, because he managed to get that little styrofoam ball up around a little bend--which I learned is called a turbinate. 

Various attempts to extract the object at home failed, including nasal irrigation, tweezers and other rare forms of tortures reserved for little boys with impulse control issues. (Poor little guy. He was a trooper.) We gave him a break from the tortures, and he ate lunch and played outside while I made myself a mocha frostie and pondered what to do.  It wasn't blocking air, and he was active and fine--our only concern was infection if it remained--and it clearly wasn't going to budge on its own. Finally a call to the doctor resulted in an appointment.

It took them most of an hour. One gal tried, called another, then called in the doctor, then when all attempts failed they called ER for suggestions (all stuff I'd tried and they'd tried). They were about to refer me to an ENT when finally they found a tool thing that held open the passage further, and after another 10 minutes of torture (poor boy's nose bleeding by now) they got it!

Interestingly, one of the nurses mentioned she had a three year old boy, and a vase filled with

Itsy-Bead-Sies, and she told us that just last week she extracted said beadsie from said three year old's nose. Beware the beadsies with the threesies!

I must say I was amazed and impressed by the beautiful atmosphere of local family practice office!  We'd never been in before, being generally healthy and not really having a need. Several signs were up about how they seek to serve God through medicine. The exam room we were in had the fruits of the spirit on the wall, and when, at long last, the nurses/doc/tech/whatever people triumphed, one of them said (reverently, with tears in her eyes from the intensity, not in vain), "Thank you, Lord" and the other said, "Amen."

The staff all praised him for how brave he was, and indeed I think he did pretty well for having people dig in his nose for almost an hour.  

Boys! What an adventure! Watching Kieran (who doesn't walk, but instead scales things like a mountain goat) I'm sure we have more adventures in store!