A trip to the E.R. with Addy

2/7/2011

Monday night I was getting the kids ready for bed. Christian went to bed early because he wasn't feeling good. Addy was wired because she had a late nap. She was making me crazy and was begging to watch a show, so I let her lay down by her dad to settle down. A while passed by and I thought both Addy and Christian were sleeping. I had just sat down to watch one of my many shows on DVR and Christian was yelling my name from the bedroom. He was completely delirious! He said " Addy said she swallowed a pin, what does that mean?" I look at Addy and she said " My bobby pin was in my mouth and I tried to pull it out and I said (add choking noise here) and I swallowed it and it went down my throat, into my belly, into my knees, and into my toes." She was completely serious! I had a hard time not laughing. I twisted her bangs back with a bobby pin for ballet that night, and I guess she had taken it out and was sucking on it while she was watching TV. I didn't know what to do. We looked around for the bobby pin but it was no where to be found. So I decided to Google my problem. Everything I could find on the internet said to go to the E.R. I called my doctor's office and left a message with the answering service. With in 5 minutes the doctor on call called me back. He was shocked that I really believed Addy swallowed the bobby pin. The thing is, Addy doesn't lie. She always tells me what is going on even when she is the one getting in trouble. Plus the way she described that she was choking I knew she swallowed it. I remembered that the bobby pin was a mini one, so when I told the doctor that, he was more on board with the swallowing. He sent us up to the E.R.

Addy was a little nervous when I explained what was going to happen, but she really wanted the bobby pin out of her belly. The first thing Addy said to the nurse while she checked us in was, " my name is Addy and I swallowed a bobby pin". It was like she was at an "AA" meeting. It was so funny! Addy and I both told the story to the nurse and to the doctor. Addy said the exact same thing that she told Christian and I earlier. They both were skeptical but sent us to get an x-ray of her throat and lung area. I am not sure why the didn't do her stomach though. The biggest concern was whether or not the bobby pin was sitting on top of the stomach. If it was, when she went to bed, there is a chance it could come back up and choke her in her sleep. If it was all ready in her stomach the doctor just wanted to make sure she could pass it ok. The bobby pin was small enough that they weren't worried about it damaging her intestines. Really they just didn't think she swallowed it. They didn't find anything in the x-ray and the doctor thought the bobby pin was somewhere at our house.

Showing off her hospital bracelet when we got home.

The doctor was really nice to me, but I was irritated that they didn't believe me. I am not sure why he didn't x-ray her stomach but whatever. He sent me home with some paper work on "swallowing foreign things" and gave Addy a little talk. He was great and explained to her all about what is appropriate to put in our mouths and how dangerous it can be if we put "bad" things in there.

Long story short........ Addy passed the bobby pin! 4 days later it was in the toilet at my friends house. I so badly wanted to take a picture of it and send it to the doctor, but I didn't. I was seriously so happy! Mostly because I went right home and called the E.R. and got to tell them I was right! I was also happy Addy was ok.