A Rocky Day

We had a delightful weekend until Sunday night. Brian headed off to California before the sun even rose on Sunday morning. Liz and I lounged about at our neighborhood pool for a few hours.

We'd finished dinner and were on a nice evening stroll to the park when Liz calmly said: "I have a rock in my nose." She said it with the same ease, she might mention that her shoe was untied.

Sure enough, there was in fact a tiny rock embedded in her right nostril. I hurried home to see if I could try and get it out. That wasn't going to happen. It was in part because of how far the rock had gone up her nose, combined with her tiny nasal passages.

Most readers of this blog know that kids with achondroplasia have tiny nasal passages, and I tend to think Liz's are even on the "more narrow side" if that's possible.

I called the doctor and he confirmed we needed to head to the ER. Off, we went.

It took several tries by the ER doctor and three of us to hold down a screaming Liz - before he finally got it out. He kept asking for smaller instruments. Obviously, there was a bit of blood but no damage - just some pain getting it out for Liz.

At her ER visit, Liz got a coloring book about visiting the hospital along with crayons, a teddy bear, a Popsicle and lots of adoring comments. I got the rock that I'll keep as a reminder about sticking foreign objects in one's body. Though, to be honest, I don't think I need to be reminded, but maybe it'll find it's place in a scrapbook.

I kept trying to remind Liz about the lessons we learned. As she was sobbing after the "extraction process" I asked her what we learned, and her response through sobs was "to be brave."

Yes, that's an important lesson. But what was I hoping she would say is that she learned not to put anything in her nose, ear, etc...

I think it may take a bit for that lesson to sink in. I was working from home today and went downstairs at snack time. I got Liz some string cheese and I had some fruit. While we were eating, Liz's babysitter looked up - stunned and said: "Liz, don't put that string cheese in your nose. Do you want to go to the ER again?"

Yikes. Talk about a stubborn child. And, it truly is amazing how quickly it happens.

I'm afraid she might be remembering fond memories of getting a bear and ice cream from her ER visit. So, we had more talks today about the "painful" extraction process and how we don't ever want to do that again.

Hopefully, a lesson has been learned. Ultimately, time will tell.