In search of the stink

They first noticed the foul smell two weeks ago while watching television more or less at the same time, the wife first and then the husband. They thought the smell is because of a dead mouse that was seen inside the home couple of days back. They took the house apart looking for the dead mouse but to no avail. Then couple of days later the husband told the wife that he noticed the same smell in his office. They thought justifiably that he was imagining the smell!

Next day too he said the same and confirmed that it was no imagination as his secretary too smelt the stinky waft. How can the same smell be both in the office as well as home?
Realization came at last. The smell was coming from the body of the man! Wife found that it was from his navel and on close inspection she found a whitish substance in the depth of his belly button. She made him wash it thoroughly; still the smell remained though the whitish material was no longer there.

This was the time they thought it to be serious enough to seek medical advice and came to see me.

The stink was obvious even before she told me its origin. He had a navel which was deep and well hidden in the fat fold of his paunch. I could with difficulty, [I used an old fashioned nasal speculum] to separate the overhanging skin folds. There I could see something glistening! It was quite easy to pull it out with a forceps. An inch and a half of cone shaped hard rubbish was pulled out. The cavity was washed and sterilized with iodine.

That was the end of foul smell. The cone contained debris, shed skin, secretions all of which had joined together to produce this foul cone!

I asked the couple if they wanted to take it home as a memorable memento. They vehemently refused!

I then dumped it in the toilet bowl and flushed it to make sure it went for ever.