Our morning started early around here and not at all like I had planned. Just after 5, Eliza came in to our room to tell us that Lucy put a black bead up her nose. After finally confirming that it was indeed up there we tried really hard to get her to sneeze. We used a lot of pepper and she didn't sneeze at all. (Still hasn't hours later.) After trying for a good 30 mins or so, Rick called 111 and the lady said bring her in to A&E (Accidents and Emergency) at Bradford Royal Infirmary. So, we quickly got showered, kids ready for school and dressed and I dropped Eliza off at Abi's house for her to take her to school for me and Rick did the normal morning run of the older kids to school and he headed into work. And I started down to Bradford. It took over an hour to get there (should have been about 25 mins). Traffic was horrible and I could not figure out where to park the first round by the hospital. It wasn't just the narrow roads (they weren't super narrow) but with cars parked on both sides, it sure made them narrow and new area and lots of traffic, I still don't love driving in unfamiliar places. But went down some side roads and then got into the hospital parking lot (glad I picked the right entrance, almost didn't and that would have been a bigger mess) and got parked in this really narrow space and just hoped I would be able to get out without any problems.
It didn't take long to register and then to get seen by a nurse and the first doctor. Firstly they had me try cover the other nostril and blow into her mouth to push the bead out. It loosened the bead and they thought they could easily suck it out with the "little hoover" suction thing. Unfortunately that did not work. She sucked it right back up or they pushed it up, either way, it was not coming out. We tried a few more times and they tried with a few other people and finally decided they didn't want to keep upsetting her and to send us down to the ENT where they could do it right the first time.
So, we got our files copied and walked over to the other building and looked confused as to where to go. Gratefully a sister (nurse) took pity on my confused look and took me to the front of the line (about 35 people) and they sent me to a hallway to wait my turn to be looked at by a doctor. There were 2 people ahead of us so we waited for about 90 minutes. They had fun pink chairs and Lucy loved sitting on each and every one of them.
She did get pretty bored also. I hadn't brought much to entertain us with but did bring an applesauce pouch, so she had something to eat. Finally we got in with the doctor. We tried the same methods as in the A&E. Only difference, the suction thing in here was 1/10th the size of the one in the A&E. It was laughable. She called in another doctor who had us do the same thing. Finally they concluded it wasn't going to budge. She wanted another senior doctor to try but they were all busy with other patients or in a meeting for at least another hour. So, off we went to the waiting room. And the nurse told me to be sure not to feed her anything as if this doesn't work she'll need to go into surgery and they don't want her aspirating during it. I was just thinking, "For a BEAD?! Surgery for a BEAD!?" I started to get a bit worried then because if all we were going to do was try to suck it out, that bead wouldn't be coming out easily.
Gratefully, about 45 minutes later, the sister calls us down to another room with the senior doctor and chief nurse to hold Lucy in a double leg, double arm and head lock. (It worked a lot better than my double leg arm lock.) Then he used the metal pliers thingy, spread her little nostrils wide and used a metal tube to start trying to push it down and pushed on her nose a lot. It took a few tries and it got down to the bottom, pulled some more and it finally got out but stuck to a lot of snot. And then it was free! Hooray!
The nurse just laughed and said this was the 3rd time this week they had to get something out of a little ones nose. Yay kids. None of the older kids had ever tried before, so I thought we were good. Nope, not so much. We stopped at the flower patch walking back to our car. Happy to be breathing normally!
Unfortunately, our good luck was still not there. A NHS van decided to park right behind my van so I was blocked in. I got some other person to try to help guide me out of my space and after trying to turn 13 times or so, finally gave up and went back into my space and then two guys holding boxes came out and they were with the van, so we could get that moved so I could finally get out of there. (After talking about my gorgeous accent and Boulder, CO where he used to frequent.)
The drive home was much less stressful and Lucy fell asleep almost before we got out of the parking lot.
Needless to say, I was exhausted, Lucy was exhausted, and we were so happy to be home and hopefully we won't need to go to A&E anymore.
When we went to pick up Eliza, all of the moms (especially the one who used to be a nurse) were sincerely shocked that she didn't have to be put under for it, I guess it's super common here with kids and things up their nose. Glad we could avoid that. Also, Abi told me that her son, Noah, was crying and whining about not wanting to go to school today. And Eliza said, "Sometimes I don't want to go to school either, Noah, but I don't cry about it. Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do." It made me laugh because Andrew once said something like that to his friend Preston and it's funny that they both did that. Now if they both actually followed that idea it would be even better, (na, they really do for the most part).
And Eliza was excited to come home with her own clearance Advent calendar...8 p, what a bargain! Lucy was excited for her to share the chocolates with her.
Hopefully tomorrow is much less eventful!
