# Where the hell was this seed? (Slightly gross) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 20, 2026, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849 "2026-02-20T15:24:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2026, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/1 "2026-02-20T15:24:41Z")
65 years this never happened to me. I ate some citrus fruit. A bit afterwards I started coughing and wheezing. I was coughing and wheezing through the night, even in my sleep. This morning I was coughing up a storm hoping to hack up a luggie. Suddenly a rather large citrus seed flew out of my mouth and into the Kleenix. WTF? I didn’t feel anything stuck in my throat or anything. Where was it? The coughing and wheezing stopped almost instantly. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2026, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/2 "2026-02-20T15:42:14Z")
You might not physically have felt it but those genius nerves in your throat knew it was there. That tickle to cough was them warning you. “Something is in here, cough @pkbites !” I’m pretty sure there are little folds and crevices in pharynx and that seed was hiding and irritating a tiny amount. Making you cough. Your body knew it was there. Amazing, ain’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2026, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/3 "2026-02-20T15:44:56Z")
Yeah, I have had a few patients over the decades who had such acute symptoms after inhaling a bit of food, often things like popcorn and other seed-like material. And it’s not unusual to NOT feel any symptoms in your throat if the foreign body just drops down into the lower trachea or below it. Glad you coughed it up. Sometimes bronchoscopy is needed to remove such things. Watch out for recurring cough, fever, purulent phlegm, as it could signal a bacterial or inflammatory pneumonia. Not all that likely, but still a possible complication. Contact your doc/ER for signs/sx of respiratory distress. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2026, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/4 "2026-02-20T16:32:58Z")
It might also have been stuck in your tonsils or something. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2026, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/5 "2026-02-20T16:37:43Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > purulent phlegm I had to Google that (I know what phlegm is). That got me on to sputum. Many say “moist” is the most unpleasant word. I nominate “sputum.” Phlegm is up there too. A bit of advice…probably do not want to Google these things. > …characterized by thick, opaque, yellow, green, or brown phlegm, signifies an underlying infection or inflammation, often indicating an increased white blood cell count (neutrophils) in the airway. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2026, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/6 "2026-02-20T17:57:32Z")
Yeah, nice of you to provide, in clear, the description Googling would have given us, after warning us not to Google it. What, no pictures? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2026, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/7 "2026-02-20T18:04:33Z")
You’re welcome. Happy to help. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2026, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/8 "2026-02-20T18:05:51Z")
Would you prefer [“laudable pus”](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2JF260X/light-micrograph-of-pus-pus-is-an-accumulation-of-cells-white-blood-cells-or-leukocytes-mostly-neutrophils-and-macrophages-it-appears-in-the-sites-of-acute-inflammation-generally-of-bacterial-origin-2JF260X.jpg)? Whatever you do, don’t click on the link! ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2026, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/9 "2026-02-21T00:05:19Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Many say “moist” is the most unpleasant word. I nominate “sputum.” I humbly counter-nominate “mucus.” ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/10 "2026-02-21T15:40:31Z")
I have an annoying gap between my back teeth and a late developing wisdom tooth. It’s really difficult to brush or floss and food sometimes gets stuck in there. A few months ago I started to feel some pain from it so I dug around with a sterile needle and managed to pull out a sesame seed. It was 2 weeks since I’d last eaten anything with sesame seeds on and the seed had actually started to sprout in there. Could this be a new gardening opportunity? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2026, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/11 "2026-02-21T16:06:37Z")
I’m going with “lugie” and the act of “hocking up” Just, ewww. (Ask me why I hated the Titanic movie) ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2026, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/12 "2026-02-21T16:17:34Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > > > Many say “moist” is the most unpleasant word. I nominate “sputum.” > > I humbly counter-nominate “mucus.” If the mucus is moist enough you can spit it out as sputum instead of swallowing it. There: they all fit in one nice sentence. Happy now? ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2026, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/13 "2026-02-21T17:12:13Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Whatever you do, don’t click on the link! It’s a schooner, right? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/14 "2026-02-22T06:37:42Z")
YIKES! That probably would have freaked out a dentist, that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/15 "2026-02-22T14:08:26Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > That probably would have freaked out a dentist, that’s for sure. The dentists I’ve known would take that sort of thing in stride. They’ve all been dealing with meth mouth and guys who haven’t brushed their teeth since the JFK administration. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/16 "2026-02-22T14:14:13Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > It might also have been stuck in your tonsils or something. I was thinking tonsils as well, and further thinking that if a tonsil (or any part of your pharynx) is shaped in a way that it could hold onto a citrus seed, then it may be worth having your doctor take a look and see if everything’s OK. If nothing else, the doctor can at least make sure there’s no other seeds or anything else stuck back there. Tonsils can accumulate some nasty stuff that can cause some nasty infections. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/17 "2026-02-22T18:59:26Z")
I’m British and the cliche about our teeth is mostly true. A British dentist probably sees much worse every day. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/18 "2026-02-23T01:30:38Z")
I have had a similar issue to the point where a Dr put a scope down my throat to see if I had some sort of unusual “pocket”. Nope. Never did get to the bottom of how this happens to me. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/19 "2026-02-24T06:58:01Z")
I can only imagine the things a prison dentist might deal with, that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849/20 "2026-02-24T07:10:14Z")
I saw a medical program where a guy inhaled a pea and it sprouted in his bronchial tube or really close to his lung(I don’t believe it was in the lung itself). It was surgically removed. Shit happens. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-was-this-seed-slightly-gross/1027849.md?page=2)