I’ve fallen behind on my “I’m thankful” for posts. I plan to sum up in a bit. But first, a post about our adventures in health care.
Last night Landon was playing on the floor in front of the TV, counting his money, which is mostly coins. Oliver was watching the TV and playing with his stuffed toy. All of the sudden, Bobby and I hear choking. We both go running to the kids, and before I’ve had time to process which kid is choking, Bobby’s got Landon turned upside down and is banging on his back in exactly the way we were trained to do in our first aid class.
After a few seconds, Landon coughed up a little bit of liquid, but no solid objects. We asked him what the heck happened, and he admitted to having swallowed a quarter. I picked up a penny, dime, and quarter and asked him which size he swallowed and he pointed at the dime. I noted that all the coins were covered in what I can only assume were salvia. So basically he’d been sucking on coins, and for some reason accidently swallowed one. Worried after how dramatic the whole thing was, I called the doctor, who said we needed to take him to get x-rayed. Luckily our local Good Night Pediatrics has X-ray machines.
Landon kept complaining that he could feel the coin in his throat, and that it was blocking his voice.
So I took him for an X-ray. Wanna see the coin he swallowed? It’s down in his intestine, around where his belly button is. See the shiny disk shape there?
Anyway, there are three “choke points” where the coin can get stuck, and this coin made it past all three. Not sure if it’s a dime or a quarter, but he’ll poop it out at some point today.
And in other news, Oliver had his tonsils, and adenoids out today, as well as tubes put in. I’ll tell you about our day in pictures:
We had to be at the hospital at 7AM, which wasn’t too big of a problem. Ollie didn’t seem to really notice the lack of food or drink. Here he is waiting to be admitted.
Once we got the paperwork done we went to the second floor for surgery. We hung out in the waiting room for about 10 minutes before getting called back. Ollie got weighed and measured and we changed into these cute purple clothes that have kola’s in spaceships all over them. Then they brought us this cool car to walk around and entertain ourselves with. Oliver enjoyed “driving” around the block in it, and the walking was better than just sitting.
First I told the nurse Oliver’s medical history, then I told the anesthesiologist, and finally went over it with the ENT again. I got the details on what to expect, and kept Oliver entertained by more walking, or watching some TV. Finally, at 9:05AM, the nurses buckled him into the car and walked him to surgery.
I went downstairs and ordered all of his medical records, and then I walked over to the café for an iced tea. I took my drink back and sat down in the waiting room. It seemed like no time at all and the doctor was out to tell me everything went fine, no issues or worries. Oliver did have a bunch of sludgy mucus behind his ears that had to be vacuumed out.
I had been told they’d call me back before he woke, but by the time we went back there, Oliver was awake and SCREAMING. He wanted the bloody IV out NOW. He kept trying to take it off and he just kept screaming. His poor voice sounded so raw. It took about 15 minutes of me holding him and talking to him, and finally getting some Yo Gabba Gabba on the TV to calm him down. Once he was calm, he drank two juice boxes of apple juice.
Eventually we got wheeled up to our room for the night. He’s being kept overnight due to his history and his age. That way they can monitor him. The doctor said he might need a little O2 tonight, but we’ll see. He’d got his pulse oxygen monitor thing on his toe, most of the time, except when he kicks it off.
He basically spent most of the afternoon chilling out in my lap.
Or in Dada’s lap, when Bobby brought me lunch.
Grandma and Aunt Heather stopped by to talk to him and brought him a cool balloon. Ollie’s eaten two small jars or applesauce and he had two more juice boxes. He fell asleep around 3ish and is still sleeping.
And that’s my day so far!
The Chronicles of a Henchwoman 