Doctors find tape inside mum's nose that may have been there from birth

A mum-of-two was left stunned after doctors removed a ball of sticky tape from her nose that had been there for 35 years. Candela Reybaud has no memory of how the sticky tape could have ended up in her nose. She suspects it may have been left behind after a nasal tube was inserted during “an episode of respiratory distress” as a newborn in the hospital.

Candela has spent her whole life breathing through a partially blocked nostril and never even knew about it. The health influencer, who has 105,000 Instagram followers, said she simply got used to it being there. The 35-year-old said: “For as long as I can remember, I've had trouble breathing through my nose.

“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. I never paid much attention to it because I got used to breathing that way from a young age.

• Gran who sent accidental text 10 years ago shares how it's 'changed her life'
• Gruesome final moments of man who choked on doughnut in front of horrified onlookers

“And at that time, there wasn't as much information as there is today about the consequences of mouth breathing.” Candela said she suffered a severe case of sinusitis about a year ago.

“At the time, I didn't get a CT scan because there wasn’t a scanner in my city and I didn’t want to travel,” she said. “After my symptoms improved, I let it go.”

But the symptoms returned a month ago, leaving her with intense pain in her right cheek. “This time, I decided to take action because I noticed it was recurring,” she said. “During an external examination, the doctor thought he saw something that could be a polyp.

“He ordered another CT scan, and this time I got it done. The report mentioned a ‘partially calcified focal image of approximately 8x6mm’ suggestive of a rhinolith, which is basically an encapsulated foreign body.

“When I brought the scan in, the doctor examined me with an endoscope and located the obstruction.” She added: “After almost an hour of trying to remove it, he finally managed to extract it with forceps.”

But they were both at a loss about what the object could be and how it got up there in the first place. Candela said: “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.

“I was incredibly surprised. I have no memory of how it ended up there, much less how long it had been there. I think it must have been there since my early childhood, or even when I was a baby. Talking to my mother, she remembered that when I was born in 1990, I had an episode of respiratory distress in the neonatal unit.

“She hypothesises that they inserted a nasal tube at that time, and the tape was on the equipment. I don't know if that’s possible, but it's the only logical explanation we've come up with. My family is just as surprised as I am.”

Candela said the change was “incredible and immediate”. “There's still some swelling from the time the foreign object was there,” she explained, “but I feel like I breathe better every day”.

“It's going to take a little longer for the swelling to completely subside, but 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 or invasive procedures.”

She added: "The thing is, at 35, I'm discovering what it's like to breathe normally through both nostrils. And I'm the protagonist of the most bizarre anecdote I've ever known.”

After sharing her story on social media, Candela has received a wave of support from around the world. “I never imagined that, by sharing my experience on social media, so many people would relate or be curious about what happened. It took me completely by surprise and, at the same time, made me realise how important it is to pay attention to symptoms that we sometimes consider ‘normal’.

“If my experience helps someone else seek medical advice in time or stop normalising lifelong symptoms, then all of this will have been worth it.”