I have done something really stupid! Do I really need medical help?

[idiot81]

I can go into the details if needed but I have a wad of toilet paper stuck up my nose! About a 1/4 of a square sheet if it matters.

it’s totally gone, can’t see it with a torch and trying to blow my nose does nothing. I can’t even feel it.

FFS do I really have to go to the Dr as a 43 year old and tell them this? What’s the worst that can happen if I ignore it?

Could you try snorting water? Once the tissue paper gets wet, it shrinks. I'm sure it will naturally come out.

YouTube the problem and look at some of the comments written. Sometimes there is practical advice there.

Neti pot!

Its a small bit of TP. TP is designed to break down quickly when wet..

And your nasal passages are well designed to produce mucus and shift stuff out to elsewhere.

Sticking things up there to go hunting for it is more likely to do damage than waiting and seeing, so I'd leave it 24 hours (assuming no pain, no swelling, no interfering with breathing) and see if its worked its way out.

If you do experience pain, swelling, disgusting discharge (pus not snot) or any other abnormal symptom, then seek help, but I suspect its broken down and gone and if it hasn't, it soon will.

On a thread where a child had lego up their nose, someone suggested using a vacuum cleaner to suck it out! 😂

I'm not suggesting that at all, but need to know why you shoved toilet paper up there?

I need to know @idiot81 did you get it out? Why did you put it in? Are you OK?! I gots ta know!

I really want to know where her brain comes into this? Can you explain?

I'm sorry if insensitive but it made me laugh out loud. What the hell did you do? Go to hospital, not worth the risk.
On the other side, once I was epilating in the bikiny area. I went to far in and some bits got caught...blood pouring like crazy, I had a panick attack thinking how will I explain this to the emergency services? I was alone at home as well. After crying my eyes out I managed to stop the bleeding somehow but I am left with trauma and am super careful now. 🧐

You can get nasal irrigation bottles cheap on Amazon. That should flush it out or make it disintegrate quicker.

Could you use a calpol syringe to squirt water up??

otherwise, call 111 or pop to a pharmacy tomorrow and see what they advise. They will lose definitely have seen/heard worse!

I'm not saying you are wrong @Pancakewaffle but I've used a neti pot daily for 18 years and I use tap water.
I second the neti pot idea OP!

Like this you mean https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/26/sex-nurse

I don’t know the exact mechanics but the tissues enclosing the brain are not impervious to all micro organisms. That is why one is advised not to submerge one’s head in natural hot pools, some rivers etc. The micro organisms find their way up the nasal passages and access the brain and sadly there is no cure.
A foreign object rotting in the nasal cavity may be host to an invasive organism.

Why did you stick it up there in the first place @idiot81? I am minded to say that this is precisely the sort of thing that the NHS should charge people £50 for.

It needs to come out but it's not a medical emergency so I'd personally be quite comfortable leaving it until tomorrow and just trying to get it out at home tonight.

If it's only a quarter of a sheet of toilet paper (how?!? 🤣) then it will dissolve easily so do a saline nasal flush.

Or cover one nostril and blow out really hard through your nose...or cover one nostril and get someone to blow into your mouth.

Yes exactly. The classic ‘oh I fell on it’ 😂

Well I realise some people have a terrible sense of direction, but that's not where you're supposed to use toilet paper.

Yes of course.
The sinuses lead to the brain.

Some brain surgery is performed via the nose.

If I have a cold I put toilet roll in my nostrils to stop them dripping, especially at night. I've obviously been lucky not to lose any!

I need to know how and why this happened!?

They're right. Husband is a neurologist so he's always on at the kids about avoiding stupid infections. Your nose is the shortest distance to your brain. That's why if your brain fluid is gonna leak out anywhere it's through your nose

When my daughter was younger and she had tissue paper up her nose, the dr wasn’t concerned as it can dissolve, they wouldn’t even see her!!

@idiot81 Google “parent kiss” and get your partner/willing adult to do it.

That's an incredibly stupid thing to do

ok I will leave the advice but please please tell us how you did it?

Reminds me of that woman in Take a Break, she had moisturised her face so her hands were slippy, she was brushing her teeth and the toothbrush slipped down her throat, her hands couldn’t grab it and she ended up swallowing the entire thing.
Then. The best bit.
She went to bed!

omg I was reading it thinking how? How? What? How?

How did she actually sleep after that? I’d be freaking out !!! She went to hospital the next day and had surgery to remove it, it showed the xray and it was lodged in a bad spot.

I had so many questions that could be never be answered but you can answer me. Please tell me step by step how it happened.

You're going to be absolutely fine. Order the hottest Indian/Thai you can possibly manage and that'll get your nose running.

Happened deliberately to my brother as a toddler. Did it deliberately. The GP removed it in one with some kind of tweezers. Were you trying to stop a nosebleed?

Potentially an infection to the brain could start via the sinuses, even meningitis. Very rare so don't be worrying about this any time you have a cold. The cribriform plate, part of the ethmoid bone in the nose is like a little sieve so the olfactory nerve can get through and transport smells into the brain. If this sieve is defective, it can allow infection through.

Depending how you caused it I would be inclined to ring a late night pharmacy for any advice rather than disturb it more tonight