Only a pebble...or... a lesson in peer pressure

At 11:00 a.m. I got a call from Aydens school telling me that my child had a pebble stuck in his ear. Huh? Did you read that right? Yup. A Pebble. In. His. Ear. How did he get the pebble in his ear? Apparently, according to my child who tends to make up whoppers... his friends were "all doing it." They were putting pebbles in their ears, then shaking their heads to send the pebbles flying. Another version of the story involves "spinning the pebbles" in their ears. I've never played that game. Most of the children avoided lodging pebbles in their ear drums. Not my child. Nope, no flight of the pebble around here, no winning of the pebble spinning, just a downward spiral of pebble stuckness into the massive amount of NASTY goo already existing in his ears. (Because I am overly cautious about instruments in ears and obey the warnings NOT to place objects into them... I obviously did not share this lesson with my child.) At the doctors office we were met with concern and humor and complications. The nurse who typically is not our friend with Balin (she scares him) had Ayden giggling and holding his nose and blowing trying to get the pebble out. The doctor was calm and concerned, but was not only unable to remove the pebble, he allowed the pebble to slip even further away into the ear canal. He was able to page a friend and we now have an appointment with an ENT in the morning who will attempt the same procedure and is prepared to take Ayden to the ER to do an emergency outpatient procedure involving putting my child to sleep. All because of a simple little pebble and peer pressure. Unbelievable.