Brief Answer: Foreign bodies can indeed come out spontaneously Detailed Answer: Dear mother, Thanks for the query. A BB pellet is a small foreign body, and many patients have those for years without any consequences. The main problems that would definitely need surgical intervention would be infection (red, inflammed hand with pain) or severe pain interfering with daily activities; if there is just mild pain that gets relief with Tylenol or ibuprofen I agree with my colleagues that a surgical exploration may be more risky than beneficial. Many times, these objects do come out on their own. One caveat: make sure that is she ever needs an MRI to declare that she has a pellet in her body as it may be hazardous to do an MRI with metal in your body. Hope that helps, wish you the best, Dr Brenes-Salazar MD Mayo Clinic MN

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Brief Answer: Ice is best Detailed Answer: Yes, thanks for bringing it to my attention. Indeed, icing has anti-inflammatory properties, as opposed to heat, which does not. So, if she is having discomfort, other than judiciously taking over the counter medication, she can do ice compresses for intermitten periods of 1 minute, for a total of 10 minutes, twice or three times a day if she is having a bad day. Best regards

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