Nostril Fun

About three weeks ago, one of my sons, Alex (age 4), kept fussing with the left side of his nostril.  He tried to blow his nose and he kept putting his finger in it.  I grabbed a flashlight and tried to look inside, but he cried and screamed like crazy, so I gave up.  I figured it was just a really big booger that he would eventually pick out and smear somewhere where I least expect it.  About a week later, his nostril start to drip a little and I thought his allergies were acting up.  A few days later, he got a hold of a red marker (washable marker....only type allowed in the house) and scribbled on his leg, rubbed it in his belly button, and rubbed it in his left nostril.  I wiped him up and all is well.  The next day, his nostril is bleeding just a little.  And it's still runny, just on that side of his nose.  I give it a few more days and finally decide to take him to the pediatrician.  We find out that there's blockage but she can't tell what it is (could be mucus) so she sends us to the pediatric EENT doctor.  We go there today and the doctor says there's some kind of foam/sponge inside.  I immediately remember the boys playing with these toy capsules that the boys would soak in water and they would grow into foam shapes of dinosaurs.  I hold Alex down and the doctor grabs some special tweezers and pulls the foam out and.......there is this horrendous smell that fills the room.  Not quite like a poopy diaper, but more like rotted food, but not super pungent either.  Hard to describe.  Apparently, this moist foam had been sitting in his nose for about 3 weeks, collecting all sorts of interesting bacteria.  His nostril immediately had a read stream of blood gushing out that lasted about a minute.  It stopped and the doctor said his nostril was swollen inside but will heal on its own in the next few days.  Six years of having kids and this is the first time one of them shoved something up his nose that got stuck.  Not bad!  Our pediatrician also told me that she had a patient who came in and had something stuck up his nose for two years!  Hey, I only waited three weeks!