Case of the Missing Button

I'll try to make this brief... Thursday night Cali was supposed to be going to sleep but since she took a good nap that day she was still awake at 9pm when I heard her start to cry. It was unusual so I went to check and she told me she had put a button in her nose. Great. After much hysterics on her part and us fumbling through books and the internet and a call to a friend trying to figure out what to do we finally went to the ER. She insisted it was in there and I believed her (although she said it wasn't when we mentioned going to the doctor) but we couldn't see it anywhere.

So I take her to the ER to at least find out if its really in there. We arrived around 10PM, the waiting room was very much full and I do not exaggerate one bit when I say this: WE WAITED FOR 9 HOURS TO BE SEEN!!! Cali didn't fall asleep until 3:30 AM and I eventually nodded off for a bit sitting up in the small uncomfortable chair. She was the very last person out of everyone that had arrived the night before to be seen. That's not counting the 3 or 4 families that finally gave up and left by 4am.

So finally the doctor sees us, lo0ks and looks and looks in her nose. She wasn't fond of the idea but really did a fantastic job of staying calm and still to let them look. (She was promised a popsicle for her cooperation). He really did try to find it. It was nowhere to be seen. She said it was still there, I believed her. Doc said best thing was to just wait and watch and see, no use poking around to find something when we have no idea where it is at. I agreed. He offered to do a chest x-ray. I declined. We were beyond ready to go home and it seemed unlikely to help.

Fast forward three days. She has said at various times that it is... on the right side, on the left side, it came out, it went back in, its a button, its a bead, its still in there, it feels better... So we didn't know what to think. Dave started to think it was a "pretend" button, but I still believed her. I thought maybe it had worked back far enough to drain down her throat. It wasn't bothering her and there was no unusual discharge. Well finally today after lunch she was coughing and sneezing (she's had a cold all week already) and I went to blow her nose and guess what came out.... a tiny red button!