Tic Tacs and Typewriters

Last Tuesday Jake had a job helping a lady from our ward. Her office is in the process of moving from the main floor to the downstairs in a beautiful 1915 home nearby and needed some help with heavy lifting and some deep cleaning. They worked on Monday and he helped her finish up the stuff she couldn't do on her own, Tuesday morning.

Because they were working just 5 minutes away, I left Cooper in charge of Karcyn and Calvin. They were outside playing in the backyard. I took JJ and we went to go get Jake.

When I arrived, Jake opened the door of the office/house and said, "Mom! Come here. You gotta see this." I couldn't imagine what got him so excited. We went around a corner and he pointed to a...typewriter.

"Ah, yes. I haven't seen one of those in years." I explained to him that we had my Grandma Lee's typewriter in our house growing up. A couple of my elementary school reports were even typed up on it (thanks to my mom's mad typing skills) and I had the chance to use it a few times as well. He thought it was crazy cool that he was witnessing with his own two eyes the very "object" that inspired the computer keyboard :)

Our friend Jill allowed Jake the opportunity to tinker on the typewriter and try it out. Jake said it was HARD!  He then presented me with a letter that he had typed up for me.

He admits it took him a few times before he got the hang of it. Jill and I were reminiscing about how great and revolutionary we thought the electric typewriter was! I actually took one of those to college with me my freshman year, but the computer lab took over shortly after that.

We said goodbye to Jill and headed back home. I had no sooner set foot in the door when Calvin was coming towards me. He was holding his face and crying. Oh boy. What now?

He stopped crying just long enough to mutter he had a Tic Tac up his nose. Seriously??

I bent down and took a quick preliminary look up his right nostril but couldn't see anything. Jake got a flashlight and looked himself and he said he could see it. Great. It was 12:30. Lunchtime. Plus he and Karcyn had a play date at 1:30 and then I was supposed to run to Jared's office for a meeting. I wasn't sure how critical this Tic Tac up the nose was. So I debated for a minute. However, Calvin's wails were increasing. The main problem was the Tic Tac flavor..."Freshmint" or "spicy" if you're one of my kids. Calvin was crying because it was burning. I've had jalapeno juice accidentally find its way into my nasal passages so I could definitely relate!

I grabbed a tissue and told Calvin that maybe he could "sneeze" the candy out and instructed him to blow his nose. He did as I asked. But it didn't work. I called Jared at the office during his lunch break, filled him in and asked if he thought they could retrieve a Tic Tac from Calvin's nose or if I should just wait for it to dissolve. Jared said they could get it and told me to bring him in...even though I'd be turning right around and going back to that very place once I got home.

On the way to the clinic, I couldn't help but chuckle at poor Calvin's plight. I asked him why he put the Tic Tac up his nose. He said he was trying to make Karcyn laugh. I asked him if it worked. He regrettably said "No" and softly cried the better part of the 10-15 minute drive to the office.

Periodically, I heard Calvin coughing with a mix of superficial choking. I wondered if the Tic Tac was actually making its way from the nasal passage into his throat, but figured the more likely scenario was that the vapors of the Tic Tac were dripping down his throat and were too much for him.

When we got to the office and got out of the car, Dr. Hicken was returning from his lunch. Dr. Hicken is someone Calvin idolizes and if I didn't know better, I might have wondered if he didn't put the Tic Tac up his nose on purpose, just so he could see the good doctor. Calvin is the first and probably the last of my children who has actually begged me to take him to see Dr. Hicken at the first hint of a possible ailment.

Dr. Hicken stopped when he saw us, noticed Calvin's sad demeanor and the tissue at his nose and asked Calvin what happened. I encouraged Calvin to tell him. Calvin started out by first asking Dr. Hicken if he knew what a Tic Tac was. That's all the prompt Dr. Hicken needed because he asked Calvin "Did you stick one up your nose?"

We went inside and found Jared. One of the MAs escorted us to an exam room and Jared, accompanied by a med student, came to give Calvin's nostril a look see. The Tic Tac was way up there and if I understood correctly, kind of around a bend, so not in a great position to be retrieved. Jared wanted Dr. Hicken to take a look as well. We joked with Calvin that we were getting the Big Dog to help him.

As soon as Dr. Hicken came in, Calvin said, "Hey Big Guy." Dr. Hicken used an otoscope light to look up his nose. He confirmed with Calvin there was only one Tic Tac and only his right nostril affected. Dr. Hicken grabbed a tool, a pair of scissors with really long, thin blades for grabbing and told Calvin to sit very still while he tried to get the Tic Tac. Calvin did GREAT. About 15-20 seconds into the process, though, it started bothering him. He got a little agitated and gradually became upset again. Dr. Hicken said the mint wasn't in a position to be grabbed. He grabbed the light to take another look. Calvin interpreted that motion to mean the mega scissors were going to be used again, but Dr. Hicken assured him, by holding the grabbers his arm's length away from his body, that they wouldn't be used. He just wanted to look up Calvin's nose again.

Then Dr. Hicken said, "You know what, let's just close the left nostril and have you blow really hard, okay?" Calvin blew his nose and immediately flying out with tons of snot was a small, white Tic Tac. YAY!!!! We all cheered! Calvin was so proud of himself for getting the Tic Tac out on his own merits. I swore to the doctor that we had already tried blowing it out at home, but obviously the candy piece hadn't dissolved enough to shrink in size when we did it.

Clearly, worst case scenario, the Tic Tac would have just dissolved on its own. However, I think Calvin appreciated that we were doing what we could to help him instead of just saying, "It'll melt, Buddy. Hang tight." Lucky for us, it wasn't an inedible object. Dr. Hicken said he's had patients (or their children rather) who have stuck things up their nose but by the time they came to see him, days had passed during which bacteria and mucus had surrounded the object, creating, what he shared is the most FOUL smell ever.

As the medical entourage left the exam room, Calvin called out to Dr. Hicken, "Thanks, Big Guy!" Dr. Hicken got a chuckle out of that. Only Calvin could get away with such greetings.

It took longer for us to drive to the clinic than it did for us to resolve the issue. But I'm grateful that:

a) Jared's job is in the health profession. It has come in super handy over the years having five kids and four of them boys.
b) it took this long before we had the joy of  the "object up the nose" experience
c) that Calvin and Karcyn were still able to enjoy their afternoon play date.

On our way home, I asked Calvin if he learned his lesson. He said he did. He would never put a white Tic Tac up his nose again. But--if it was the fruity kind, it would be okay because it wouldn't burn!