A mother has spoken of her astonishment after doctors removed a ball of sticky tape from her nose that had been there for 35 years. Candela Reybaud, 35, had lived with a partially blocked nostril all her life, never realising the cause until a recent medical examination.
Ms Reybaud, a health influencer with 105,000 Instagram followers, said she had always struggled to breathe through her nose. "For as long as I can remember, I've had trouble breathing through my nose," she explained. "On the right side, air barely passed through when I inhaled. I've always had difficulty doing physical activity because I had to breathe through my mouth, and the same thing happened when I slept."
Her symptoms worsened a year ago when she developed a severe case of sinusitis. After a brief recovery, the symptoms returned a month later, prompting her to seek further medical help. A CT scan revealed a 'partially calcified focal image' suggestive of a rhinolith - an encapsulated foreign body. Doctors attempted to remove it endoscopically, and after almost an hour, they successfully extracted the object with forceps.
Ms Reybaud said she was stunned when she realised what it was. "At first, we didn't understand what it was, but when I was able to examine it more closely, I quickly realised it was a piece of adhesive tape folded and rolled up," she said. She suspects the tape may have been left behind after a nasal tube was inserted during an episode of respiratory distress as a newborn in hospital.
The removal has brought immediate relief. "I feel like I breathe better every day," she said. "The difference is already very noticeable. I'm still surprised, but also very relieved to have finally found the cause, and even more so because it was resolved without surgery." She added: "At 35, I'm discovering what it's like to breathe normally through both nostrils."
