Nose question, medical, not for squeamish

In My Humble Opinion
1

Ok. I feel weird asking this, but I need to know before I bug a professional. My husband’s an M.D. (psychiatry, though) and even he is kind of shrugging on this one.

Again, this is kinda gross. You’ve been warned. :o

I’ve got a…thing…in my right nostril. It feels like somebody stuffed a pointy piece of cartilage up there. Way up there. Like, right around where the septum cartilage meets the ethmoid plate. Forgive me if that isn’t quite right–nasal anatomy is a bit confusing. The posterior, pointy part of the thing is, as far as I can tell, just a cm or so south of my nasolachrymal duct (inner corner of eye).

I checked, as best I could; I do **not **have a similar structure/obstructure on the left side of my nose.

I wouldn’t have known, but I was getting some hellacious nose bleeds a couple months ago where I was blowing out bloody hard gummy worms from that side of my nose. I did some dilute H2O2 rinses, and felt like there was more up there that I couldn’t get out. So, I checked it out. Yes, I stuck my pinky way up my nose. Something isn’t right. It’s pointy, kind of hard, but bounces/pops. Slightly painful. Bleeds readily. I have bad postnasal drip, too, even if I’m not sick. Whistling through that nostril.

What the heck could this be? Wart, old broken nose sequelae, misplaced cartilage, polyp, tumor…?

Hypochondriac stuff. Heh. I’ve not been in the best of health the past two-three years. Won’t go into all of it right now, but constant swollen glands, arthritis, VERY weird skin issues, bad gums, constant tachycardia ~120 bmp. Merry-go-round of doctors; I’ve been taking a bit of a break from that. For medical types, the closest anyone will come to a DX is Behcet’s. I also have been plagued with intermittent bad smells even though nobody else notices (not auras, we don’t think). It smells like feet or wet dog, something organic and not nice. I also had a painful wartlike growth near the outer edge of one nostril, interior, a couple years ago right after having a nasal cannula for oxygen; it took a couple of months for that to go away.

Anyway, any thoughts on what this is would be appreciated. Or in lieu of that, ideas on the most succinct way to present this to my GP would be nice. He’s a little… overworked, and I’m probably a bit of a PITA patient (just because I’ve got weird stuff; I’m hopefully not an asshole or anything ;)) Or should I just ask to go to an ENT? Ugh.

In other words, something better than “Hi, doc, I’ve been digging for gold…and boy did I find a nugget!” :o:smack:

If you’ve read this far, thanks!

2

I’d think, “Hi, Doc, there’s something pointy sticking out of one side of the inside of a nostril!” would at least get a shiny light beam pointed up that way.

3

Try “Doc, I’ve been getting nosebleeds lately and being curious I stuck my pinky up there and it feels like there’s either something stuck up there or poking into the nose tunnel - could you take a look up there and see if there’s anything amiss?”

4

Yes, that’s what I’ll say. Anybody ever heard of this kind of issue before? I’ll be making an appointment today.

5

Clot?

6

Yes, of course you can get a blockage there. A visit to your doc is a good place to start. Don’t be surprised if your doc wants you to see an ENT.

Years ago, we had a wee patient (2 years old or so) who had been quietly playing with dried beans in a pan while mom was cooking dinner. Dad tell junior “Don’t stick those up your nose! Har har har” After junior realizes “Hey! Dad is right! These things really fit up there!” we see Junior in Urgent Care. Cocaine to numb nose, and a small drop of surgical grade super glue on the tip of a probe, Dad gets his bean back. Parents are told that beans aren’t a safe toy for Junior.

You don’t have a bean up there, do you?

7

No beans…heh. I did get really sick from wadding up paper in my ears and leaving it there when I was a tot, though.

It’s way too firm and attached to be a clot.

8

Lots of possible things; the first that come up when googling “obstruction in nose” are things like overgrown turbinates (bony structures in nose, no reason that needs to be symmetric) and nasal polyps.

If I understand correctly, Behcet’s is some kind of autoimmune thing that causes inflammation of blood vessels, might this cause some kind of swelling?

I’ve never heard of warts inside the nose but that might be a possibility.

A cyst, abscess or fungal mass maybe?

And of course it could be a benign (rare) or cancerous (even rarer) tumor.

I would think that anything in there that didn’t belong might trigger odd smells, just from screwing up the nose’s normal flora.

9

I happened to be in my doctor’s office Monday for a regular checkup and had them look at a similar lump in my left nostril, right next to the septum. This thing has been making the tip look swollen for the past week or so.

They told me it’s likely just a harmless polyp and harmless nose polyps aren’t all that uncommon after a certain age but if it starts bothering me or increases in size I should see a specialist about having it removed.

10

I have no ideas, but I am totally pulling up a chair and a bucket of popcorn to see what it turns out to be.

I may not end up actually being able to eat the popcorn.