A boy, his nose, and an acorn

This is a story about a boy, 

 

his nose,

 

and an acorn.

One day, the boy's Mommy came to pick him up from Preschool.  The boy's teachers informed his Mommy that they thought he had something up his nose.  That's weird, Mommy thought.  The only thing the boy or his brother had ever put up their noses before were these.

 

The boy denied it, then fessed up that yes, there was something in his nose - after the preschool director and Mommy found it with a flashlight and tried to get it out. She couldn't.

So, trying to be a responsible parent, the Mommy took the boy to the pediatrician immediately.

The pediatrician saw the object, called for some help to hold the boy down, and made one attempt to try and get it out of the boy's nose.  She couldn't.


After a detour at Mommy's work (Daddy is traditionally out of town when nonplanned medical issues arise), the boy and his Mommy ventured into the big city of Tampa

to visit the ear, nose, and throat doctor at the only appointment left in that practice (which we know well) in the whole city for the day.

The ENT, who was not the one we regularly see and who Mommy thinks did not have children of his own, couldn't find the object at first.  Then he decided to put medicated cotton in the boy's nose to numb the area and dissolve the object if it was up there.  Mommy thought to herself, "He has one shot to get this up the boy's nose before the boy realizes what's going on and freaks out.  Can he do it?" He couldn't.

So Mommy and two nurses held the boy down while the doctor inserted the cotton.  Mommy held and soothed the boy for a few minutes, the doctor and nurses came back in.  Mommy and the nurses held the boy down again and, with the help of a camera and this tool

the object was removed.  While Mommy comforted the boy again, the doctor positively identified the object as a piece of an acorn.  Not the whole thing, just a piece of the bottom part.  Amazing.  Mommy asked the boy if he was ever going to put anything in his nose again.  The boy answered with a resounding,

Mommy figured out the pediatrician cost $25, the ENT cost $45, and the procedure at the ENT cost $47 - but only because we have met our deductible for the year.  So the piece of acorn cost $117. Oh and then there was this

that cost about $9 for two, one for the boy and one for his brother.  But at the end of a very long day, they made everything better, and made the boy temporarily forget about the trauma of the acorn. The moral of the story?  The boy has two more months to stick whatever he wants up his nose.  After that, the deductible resets and that piece of acorn will cost a lot more money.

But the real moral? Whatever it takes to keep this boy smiling is worth every penny.