L recently found out what happens when you put a popcorn kernel in your sisters ear! Yeah REALLY!!! After Awana one night I popped them some popcorn and set them in front of Veggie Tales as per normal just to find out 20 minutes later that L had put a popcorn kernel in E's ear.. 'just as a joke mommy!' and she LET him. I'd had a bit of a long day, Wednesdays are almost always really long days, and I got a little mad. I yelled. SERIOUSLY what was he thinking!!! Later when I googled it I found that often kids put kernels in their own ears..not that this means they should! There were a slim few who put a kernel in another child's ear. I wonder if that's because the typical family these days has only two children several years apart?
Anyway.. by this time it was after nine.. I took a good look in her ear and tried to get it out with the end of a bobby pin.. thinking if I can just get the end behind the kernel it should come forward and pop out. NOPE! I called Papa.. he laughed and said keep trying. We both knew it need to come out. I tried again.. the booger sucker bulb for Baby G's nose.. Papa's idea... Hoping that it would suck on to the kernel enough so I could pull it out.. Nope. Tweezers.... NOPE!! All this time I'm thinking "Your gonna have to take her to the ER so they can get it out!' and every time I tired to get it out it slipped a little bit farther in!! I called Papa again.. warm water he said flush it out.. NOPE!! Didn't even try that one.. I'd already been online and read that water can swell a seed and make it harder to get out. I told him I was going to have to take her in. End of story.
I put it up on my status on FB hoping to get some ideas... lots of sympathy, several stories.. no ideas. My mom called. :) She offered to watch the other kids while I took her in but I'd have to take the baby. Papa and I had decided he would come home early and stay with them while I took E in but he'd have to go back to work after.. making a long night into a longer night. I said yes to Grandma.
By this time the other kids were in bed and it was 10ish. E was asleep on the couch... kernel filled ear down. Grandma got here and we woke E up and got her a bit more dressed as it was -15C and falling. We grabbed Baby G, who slept through this whole thing!, and headed to the ER. I checked the kernel before we went.. it had slide closer to the outside of the ear!! YAY!!
We got to the ER at 10:30pm.. E and I played Battleship on my ipad2 while we waited for the doctor and answered all the questions. By 11:25 the kernel was OUT and E was rubbing her ear! She said it didn't hurt at all until they used a very neat tool to get it out! I didn't catch the name but the tool was long and skinny with a wire noose on the end.. a little like those dog catcher things that they catch strays with..but the wire was fixed. The doctor wiggled the wire behind the kernel and pulled up! That HURT E said, but she didn't cry! She was SO brave and held super still as the doctor fished it out. It took all of 3 tries and 20 seconds to fish out! I was seriously impressed. The doctor asked us if we wanted to keep the kernel.. we said NO!! We'd seen quite enough of it already!! I was amazed at her ear, it was producing amazing amounts of wax trying to flush the kernel out on it's own. The kernel was no longer yellow but a dark yucky brown, covered in ear wax. I do wonder what would have happened if she's slept on that ear that night? Maybe she'd have woken up with a kernel in bed beside her?? God truly did design us amazingly!! E had quite the story to tell the next morning. Her ear hurt for a couple of days, but it never did affect her hearing or anything else.
Now every time we have popcorn I ask.. "and what do we NOT do with popcorn??" As one the kids yell.. "PUT IT IN OUR EARS!!" and I always add.. "or any place else!! Except your MOUTH!" :)
It took L a while to bounce back.. he truly didn't mean any harm and we talked about jokes and maybe next time talking to Mommy about it first to see if it's ok before we play jokes on others that we've not tried before. He felt really bad that E had to go to the ER and handled her gently for the next week or so. These two say they are 'best sister and best brother' and often act more like I would expect twins to act. Protecting each other, whispering together, holding hands. I think being in Grade 1 and awana together has really helped their relationship.
