My wife and I were relaxing and talking when we heard my niece and my sons race up the stairs and say, ” J put a checker in his nose.” Next, I heard my wife say,”we’ll probably have to go to the emergency room.” I wish I could say I jumped up and hopped in the car. But since J continued to be silly and playful while telling us he did have a checker in his nose, it was hard for me to feel to anxious about the situation.

 I should clarify that the checker was from a $1.00 store mini-checker set, so the checker was a foamy, black, circular checker the size of a finger nail. Apparently he was getting bored watching Ry and my niece play a round of checkers and did what any of us would do in that situation, he jammed the checker up his nose. Anyway, my wife called the doctor and to no one’s surprise, they said go to the Emergency Room.

So we had to negotiate a temporary 3 year old melt down before leaving. When J heard that my niece and Ry were going to watch a movie, while we took him to the E.R., he was mad that he couldn’t watch too. It still amazes me that three year olds don’t make the connection that we are going to the ER, not to punish them or deny them the chance to watch Willy Wonka, but rather to remove a foam checker that you inserted into your left nostril.

My wife smartly suggested we try Children’s Memorial Hospital rather than a larger hospital nearby. I hate that experience of going to a general ER and dealing with staff that are not as clued into kids or their parents. At Children’s, it was colorful and we had Sponge Bob on the tube. Definitely far less dreary or quiet than most emergency rooms.

The nurse wrapped a mini cuff around his arm to get his blood pressure. The nurse, and the doctor seemed genuinely curious about why he put the checker in his nose. J has learned the art of being shy and cute, which just distracts him from answering any uncomfortable questions. At first the doctor said those dreaded words, “wow, its really jammed up in there.” This was followed by J sneezing-but nothing came out. The doctor advised us that the current research has demonstrated that if we cover one nostril and my wife blows air into J’s mouth, the checker could pop out. We were open to this, especially since the option was to use some goop in his nose, to help break the foam into pieces till it came out.

So J was told to lay down on his side. As he was positioning himself in a comfortable position, he sneezed, and the checker flew in the air and landed on the Doctor’s grey lab coat. It took us a minute to locate it, but we all saw it fly. Another doctor came in to double check J and then we heard the words we were waiting for, “you are free to go.” I can’t say for sure, but from the way the doctors and nurses were checking him out as we left, I’m pretty certain J made the top ten list for interesting cases for the night.