Need some reassurance, found foreign object in food

[MJunderway]

Hello!

I've been doing relatively well (considering everything that is going on in the world) with my HA. I've even had some breakthroughs regarding the origin of some chronic pain I deal with (shocker, it's anxiety related!). Over the weekend, I purchased and consumed a decent amount of a loaf of bread (rustic kind with thick, chewy crusts). I was slicing the bread last night and noticed two stainless steel wool fibers embedded in the bottom of the bread. I pulled them out and put them in a plastic bag along with the remainder of the bread into the freezer. This morning I called the food safety hotline to report a complaint of a foreign object in the food. All good and normal behavior.

I'm struggling with the thought that I consumed some of the fibers without realizing it. Normally I tear bread like this up into pieces, especially bottom crust pieces, to make it easier to chew. I'd like to think that I would notice a 1 inch piece of steel wool as I was chewing it. I did some searching online for people who had similar incidents and most reported feeling it either in their mouths as they were chewing or swallowing. I experienced neither.

I reached out to my brother who is a gastroenterologist who basically reinforced my thought process. He also said that if it were to have been accidentally swallowed I could expect to see it within 1-3 days in the toilet. Currently, I'm struggling with my HA pulling the "what if" move. What if it I did swallow it and it got lodged in my digestive track. Wouldn't I know somehow? What if it's trapped in there? Would that cause an infection?

Anyway, I realize that this is an attempt to see reassurance from the forum but I've gotten to the point with my OCD and HA that I only use the forum to help me get over humps like this situation. I only come here when I don't want to seek reassurance from family members or the medical community (my doctors know I have HA but I made a pact with myself that I wouldn't abuse my relationship with them). So if anyone who has a similar experience with finding something like this in their food I would love to hear from you. Thank you in advance!

[AnnieMags]

Hello MJ, your post was a couple of weeks ago and hopefully you are absolutely fine and reassured anyway. I just wanted to tell you that in the very unlikely event that you did swallow some steel wool fibres, it would be very unlikely to hurt you, especially as you would have been eating them with bread. As I understand it, bread, better than other food stuffs, tends to envelop anything it is swallowed with and everything would then be eliminated in the usual way. This was the advice I got from a doctor when my son was small and I thought he might have swallowed something small and sharp (I forget what it was). I have always remembered that advice and also applied it to my dogs when I worried they might have swallowed something untoward. They think it is great - they get to eat something unspeakable and then get rewarded with a sandwich! Best wishes, Annie