Saturday, October 11, 2008

To go or not to go



To the E.R.--that is the question.

Luke was at a friend's house, tripped and cut his eyelid open on their coffee table. After consulting with Dr. Moms I didn't take him to the E.R. We put a butterfly stitch on and I found some steri-strips from when he busted his other eye-lid open 2 years ago on Gma/pa Mud's rocking chair. When we got home he told me he couldn't shut his eye to pray because he had a band-aid on it. Just an excuse? I think so.

Oh well, Chicks dig scars, right?

Well, fast forward a week and two days. I had a fabulous birthday (later post on that). I was getting ready to go to my first PTA meeting, I put Nay down on her play mat and go into the kitchen (20 feet away) to start getting dinner ready. I hear a weird cough-cough, run in and she is fine. I look at her head and something is missing.

I question Little Man, "Did you take her barrette out?"
"No."
"Did you see her barrette fall out of her hair, did she put it in her mouth?"

I look around, but of course the floor is clean. Meanwhile, Nay is just laughing and acting completely normal. I called S.

"I'm 99% sure your daughter just swallowed a barrette."

I called the pediatrician and they told me since it was metal I needed to take her to the E.R.

I called S. and told him I had to go to the E.R.

"Do you want me to come home?"

Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Do I want to go to the E.R. with three children at 6:30pm on a Friday night, a hospital that I have to travel on 66 West, again... ON A FRIDAY NIGHT?!

So, he headed home and my mom came over to watch the kids till he got home.

After hanging in the E.R. for 3 hours...
Diagonsis: A barrette in her stomach.
Dig through poop.
Find barrette.
If it doesn't come out in 72 hours? Call.

Success. It was found just under 45 hours later. The kids thought it was pretty funny.

On the Things to Do List: Put away ANYTHING smaller than a toilet paper roll.

Oh, and I guess I will have to deal with people calling my baby girl "He" for a little longer. (The nurse in the E.R. was taking us back to take the x-ray and she kept saying how cute "He" was. Finally she looked down at the chart and saw it was a girl--purple and flowers didn't give it away) and apologized. I wanted to say, "Lady, it's because of people like you that got us in this mess in the first place!" Okay, not really, but COME ON!



A boy? Really (say it like Jason Bateman does on Arrested Development)?



See how small it was?!?! If I hadn't been a "good" mom it could have just passed and I would be $100 richer (stinking E.R. copay!).

8 comments:

Amanda said...

This is partly why I'm happy I have a boy. Sure, Ethan is bound to swallow something dime-size fairly soon, but at least it won't be something from his own outfit! What a fiasco... glad everything turned out fine.

Lisa Fox said...

ohhh the E.R. gotta love that. I'm sure this is just the beginning of more e.r visits to come. BUT still not a fun time. SO glad it came out safe and sound. I actually called poison control once because Jillian swallowed a piece of polly pocket. But they said it happens all the time and check the poop. no harm. See you need to live down here by me and your sisters a brand new hospital just opened up and i walked in the door with Jolie ( she was totally fine btw) and they took us right back now wait it was great....wink wink just a nudge...but i understand! :)

Tennille said...

At least you went right away--you could be like me and listen to your one year old wheeze a bit after swallowing an apple core and think, "He's fine. It just scratched his throat." And then he needed a bronchoscopy to get it out. Always better to be safe than sorry.

And I don't think Nay looks like a boy at all! People thought S was a boy when she was a baby and that child always had pink on. One older man said to me, "Well, I had four boys so I think all babies are boys." What?!!

Lisa said...

Yikes! I glad everything "came out" okay. It is practically a commandment in our house that Paige's Polly Pocket stuff does not cross the threshold of her room for obvious reasons. Everytime I have a baby, I forget how they really do put EVERYTHING in their mouth.

Carrie said...

That is one of my biggest fears about babies/small toddlers! Makes me soooo nervous something would block their passageway! At least now we know she's good at eating...good things you'd already started feeding her. Kyle puts all toys in his mouth, but he hasn't started eating food yet, so if he were to get something small inhis mouth, and not know how to eat/swallow right, freaky!

So glad all is well. Scars create character. ER trips create character. She'll have a great story when she's older!

Kristen said...

Wow. That's crazy! At least the barrette was closed, right? Any man, Naomi has a fast digestive system! Sam only poops like once a week.

ChrisnDave said...

Next time call your favorite ER nurse! (Or at least come visit me a the Reston Hospital ER!) :)

Miss M said...

The joys of motherhood. 1)I'm glad Nay is okay and 2)How could anyone think that cute girl is a boy?!

Marie