Late August and the summer sun is beating a retreat, no longer happy to wake us in the morning with comfort as we rise up for the day. Following a couple of weeks of transition, hence the break on Scandineighbour, the children have now begun lessons at their new school, eager to start following a restful summer at home. Shorts no longer seem adequate for their legs but I suspect it will be a little longer before they finally concede this fact and reluctantly reach for their trousers once again. It is now just the little one and I for a short while before he too will begin his own journey at school.
Wednesday bought us the first opportunity to spend a day planning future activities together and of course thinking of subsequent blog posts. I could hardly wait to arrive home having dropped off the boys and I drove along happily planning days out in Copenhagen before the arrival of winter and the horizontal rain.
It was at this point that I took a glance in my rear view mirror and saw my toddler very determinedly sticking a raisin up his nose. Panic. The lights turned red and I reached across hoping to remove it before it went too far for me to retrieve. I was too late, it had gone behind the scenes of a now rather proud toddler's face and immediately changed the course of the day.
Thankfully the next junction bought us to the accident and emergency department of Gentofte hospital and we swung in, ready to walk the walk of shame. You see, this is our 'summer of nose'.
Early in July the doctors at Gentofte, as pleasant as they are, were unable to retrieve the very first object that made it's sorry way in. Having been seen extremely quickly by the doctor he was unable to reach it so we had to take a trip up to Hillerod in order to see the Ear, Nose and Throat specialists. This was on a weekday evening, yet at six p.m we found ourselves in a deserted but brilliantly appointed waiting room hopeful to end the saga. Unfortunately it was not to be and we returned home readying ourselves for a nil by mouth toddler the next day in anticipation of a surgical procedure.
We had no greater desire at that time than to clear his nose and so we attempted the 'parent kiss', a technique taught to us by the patient doctor at Hillerod. One has to cover the child's mouth with their own and gently cover the clear nostril with a finger, essentially directing air behind the blockage in the hope it will be pushed forwards and out into the open. I drew the short straw and was very quickly showered in unpleasant raisin snot but still there was no raisin. The next day after a short wait we met two more doctors who fairly quickly were able to clear the problem. There was an audiable murmur of relief and a slight cheer as an enormous, by now rehydated, cranberry emerged from the nose. Apparently we are the proud parents of one of the youngest patients ever to have used their nose for storage and we were bid farewell in full expectation that we would meet again.
We haven't done so yet but we have retrieved a length of green bean, some cinnamon snail, sweetcorn kernels and a piece of paper since. All of which have been successful home removals. Up until the raisin on Wednesday, which required two nurses and a fair bit of equipment to remove. For every visit so far the medical teams have been very understanding and as patient as could be and we have waited no longer than half an hour to be seen at any point although they were not ready to joke about the situation, so I won't do that again!
I hope that by the weekend I will indeed have a plan of places to visit and share with you and that over the coming months Scandineighbour will build a portfolio of places to go in Copenhagen. The toddler might just have to enjoy a diet of soup and smoothies for a while in order for us to do so.
Wednesday bought us the first opportunity to spend a day planning future activities together and of course thinking of subsequent blog posts. I could hardly wait to arrive home having dropped off the boys and I drove along happily planning days out in Copenhagen before the arrival of winter and the horizontal rain.
It was at this point that I took a glance in my rear view mirror and saw my toddler very determinedly sticking a raisin up his nose. Panic. The lights turned red and I reached across hoping to remove it before it went too far for me to retrieve. I was too late, it had gone behind the scenes of a now rather proud toddler's face and immediately changed the course of the day.
Thankfully the next junction bought us to the accident and emergency department of Gentofte hospital and we swung in, ready to walk the walk of shame. You see, this is our 'summer of nose'.
Early in July the doctors at Gentofte, as pleasant as they are, were unable to retrieve the very first object that made it's sorry way in. Having been seen extremely quickly by the doctor he was unable to reach it so we had to take a trip up to Hillerod in order to see the Ear, Nose and Throat specialists. This was on a weekday evening, yet at six p.m we found ourselves in a deserted but brilliantly appointed waiting room hopeful to end the saga. Unfortunately it was not to be and we returned home readying ourselves for a nil by mouth toddler the next day in anticipation of a surgical procedure.
We had no greater desire at that time than to clear his nose and so we attempted the 'parent kiss', a technique taught to us by the patient doctor at Hillerod. One has to cover the child's mouth with their own and gently cover the clear nostril with a finger, essentially directing air behind the blockage in the hope it will be pushed forwards and out into the open. I drew the short straw and was very quickly showered in unpleasant raisin snot but still there was no raisin. The next day after a short wait we met two more doctors who fairly quickly were able to clear the problem. There was an audiable murmur of relief and a slight cheer as an enormous, by now rehydated, cranberry emerged from the nose. Apparently we are the proud parents of one of the youngest patients ever to have used their nose for storage and we were bid farewell in full expectation that we would meet again.
We haven't done so yet but we have retrieved a length of green bean, some cinnamon snail, sweetcorn kernels and a piece of paper since. All of which have been successful home removals. Up until the raisin on Wednesday, which required two nurses and a fair bit of equipment to remove. For every visit so far the medical teams have been very understanding and as patient as could be and we have waited no longer than half an hour to be seen at any point although they were not ready to joke about the situation, so I won't do that again!
I hope that by the weekend I will indeed have a plan of places to visit and share with you and that over the coming months Scandineighbour will build a portfolio of places to go in Copenhagen. The toddler might just have to enjoy a diet of soup and smoothies for a while in order for us to do so.
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