The Pea

Last week a friend of mine posted on Facebook about how her young daughter put a piece of a chicken nugget up her nose and had to be sedated at the hospital for it to be removed. This wasn't the first time I'd heard of a child sticking something up their nose, but I never imagined I would experience such a thing with my own child.

And then there was the pea.

Peas were part of our dinner last night. We've eaten peas a lot at our house and never had a problem. We were all enjoying our meal and good conversation when I looked over at little man and saw his finger up his nose. I didn't think much of it. I just asked him to remove his finger and not do that again. He finished his meal and went to go play.

About 5 minutes later he came back to the table, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Mama, can you get the pea out of my nose?"

"The pea? What pea?"

And then I had that sinking feeling of, "please tell me this isn't happening!" I had him lean his head back and looked up his nose. Sure enough, the little green pea was resting comfortably in his nostril. I, of course, started to freak out a bit. I just knew we were going to be making a trip to the E.R. - on a Saturday night. Saturday nights are pretty sacred in a pastor's home. We don't do much. We go to bed early. An E.R. visit just wouldn't fit into the normal schedule too well!

How thankful I am that Leah - not only a missionary, but also a registered NURSE - was here visiting! She very calmly went to her room, grabbed her tweezers and a flashlight, and came back asking for an alcohol swab. And then the minor surgery began...

Riley was such a big boy through all of it. He never once cried, and within a few seconds the pea was out and his nostril was clear again!

Once again, hooray for Leah being here!