sponge in ear

[Flare]

I work as a school nurse. Just had a student come in with ear pain. Took a quick peek - affected ear probably painful from big chunk of cerumen, student getting over a cold, nothing majorly alarming there. Unaffected ear has a sponge in it from a summertime otitis externa. She said it doesn't bother her and the the doctor told her it will absorb into her ear. I've never seen anything like that - though truth be told the last wick i contended with was in my own ear when i was a teenager and i have a distinct memory of it falling out when the swelling subsided. I advised her to follow up with her doc, since it's been 5 months. Can anyone shed light on this supposed absorbable sponge? If it exists, does it really take such a long time to do so?

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

I think you can thank Douglas Adams for that.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babel_fish

Well I'll be........

[Dixielee, BSN, RN]

It is amazing to me what kids put into body orifices! I too have seen lots of beads, peas, ear ring backs, rocks, plastic toy parts (hot wheel tires fit nicely down the ear canal). Noses are especially enticing to the younger set. Since there are 2 holes, more will fit in! Recently there were two little plastic round google eyes in each nostril, so when you looked with the light, there were eyes looking back at you!

One little girl had 8 beads in each ear. We were able to retrieve all but 1 and had to send her to ENT.

Of course adults come in too with tips of Q-tips broken off and spongy ear bud covers. Usually they have tried to remove at home and just managed to shove them deeper.

I had one kid who liked to eat rocks, big rocks! I asked him why he ate rocks and in the sweetest voice ever he said, "I wike wocks".

I won't even get into what adults put in other places! Those make for the most interesting ER stories :) Someday I will write that book and call it, "You can't make this stuff up"