Trip #2 to the Urgent Care this month

I guess Macy didn't feel like she was on the blog enough so here is her latest event! Around 10:15 AM, I went out the van to start loading stuff in it to get ready for Cameron's birthday party. Macy was out with me and I came back in the kitchen to get another load of stuff. I heard someone gag/coughing and when I looked up, it was Macy. She was running through the living room toward me - she couldn't talk or breath. Every once in awhile she would take a short gasp of air but constantly had this "gag" look on her face with her mouth open. There was nothing in her mouth and I was in panic mode. So I rammed my index finger in the back of her throat to see if I could find whatever it was. I must have dislodged the object because she was able to breathe again but then she threw up a little bit afterwards with blood. It scared her and she was very quiet and still. She was able to drink, so I thought that was a good sign. When I asked her what she swallowed, she said it was a penny. I could tell though she was acting very "subdued", was trying not to talk, and was holding her mouth kind of funny, which I discovered because she had saliva building up in her mouth and she didn't want to swallow it. It didn't hurt her to breath but she said she could still feel the penny in her throat. (I was just hoping I didn't hurt her throat when I put my fingers way down in there) When we arrived at the birthday party, my mom tried to give her some hamburger. She ate it just fine, but then threw it up about 1 minute later. So I knew something was wrong..left everyone else in charge and went to the Urgent Care around 12:15pm. They discovered by xray that it was much BIGGER than a penny and it was lodged in her throat, right where the esophagus and windpipe separate. I pulled out my coins from my purse and asked her which one she swallowed. She looked at each one carefully, picking one up and turning it over and then going to the next one. She focused in on the quarter, then the dime, and then the nickel. She layed the nickel down and then tapped on it a couple of times as if it was that coin. So we decided it must have been a nickel!

They called in to a GI specialist who wouldn't be there until around 5pm. They took another xray about 3 hours later to see if it moved down any on it's own - but it hadn't. They went ahead and put an IV in her hand, which made her very sad but she was such a trooper. Throughout the whole afternoon, you could tell she felt uncomfortable and kept "throwing up" whatever was in her tummy. Around 5pm, the GI specialist arrived and told us about the procedure. She would go under general anesthesia and be completely out. They would put a breathing tube in her windpipe (this would also prevent the coin from flipping over into that area when they were removing it) and then they go in with an endoscope and take pictures of the inside of her throat and pull out whatever object is in there. They discovered it was a QUARTER and not a penny or nickel.




We were able to go in while she was waking up..she was out!

She finally woke up and got a popsicle!! And then we headed out the door in cool wheelchair!! On the way home she told me "Mom, those people got the coin out of my throat.....that was so nice of them." Ahhh......yes, I am so grateful for doctors and medicine!

I need to add that last night for Family Home Evening we decided it would be a good idea to go over First Aid and the Heimlich Maneouver. Sometimes I forget to actually teach my kids how to treat "emergency" situations and what to do. So we role played a little bit and hopefully they won't be testing it out on each other unless there is a real emergency!