It seems like I have given birth to a child who cannot go a full year without winding up in the ER/hospital.
At 6 months, we took him to the ER because he was puking some blood along with some new baby food we were introducing.
At 16 months, he fractured his left tibia going down a slide.
At 27 months, he fractured his left femur trying to break a balloon by stomping on it. (6 weeks in a full body cast)
And now, at 45 months, he swallows a button.
A button.
This child has never been one to put much into his mouth that isn't edible.
Why now?
I'm at the grocery store, I get a frantic call from hubby.
"He swallowed a button, what should I do?"
Is he breathing?
"Yes."
Is it labored?
"No."
I'm on my way home, call his doctor.
I don't know what the man has about calling our own son's doctor, but
he doesn't. (heaven help him if I ever dropped dead, my body would
still be in the same spot years later cause he couldn't call the
funeral home)
I get home and am met at the front door by two panicked males.
Did you call the doctor?
"No."
I change clothes while Christopher clutches his throat, crying and
working himself up to hysterical. I ask him a few questions to figure
out what happened.
He got the button from on top of the four drawer filing cabinet in the
living room. (He can pull himself up on the drawer handle)
It was blue.
It came from his dress-up doctor lab coat. (anyone else see the irony here?)
And it was somewhere inside his body.
Let me also mention that it was about 2cm in diameter, so I'm not talking a tiny button you might find on your shirt cuff.
Three and 1/2 hours later, we're still in the ER, being told by the docotor that after three x-rays, they don't see a button.
Anywhere.
"Are you sure he swallowed one?"
Excuse me? IS the Pope Catholic? I mean, my son's pretty verbal for his
age, and if he says, "Mommy I swallowed the blue button and it's stuck
in my body," then yes, I'm quite sure that it's in there. Especially if
you factor in all of his behaviors around the time of the incident.
So we take him home and keep an eye on him over night.
Yesterday, I kept him home. He curled up on my lap all morning (unusual
for him), fell asleep there (also unusual), couldn't swallow anything
thicker than ice cream (became hysterical when he tried swallowing a
fruit snack, drooled excessively (something he barely did while
teething) and kept rubbing the base of his throat.
You do the math.
So I called the pediatrician.
He took a look at the X-rays and said that they showed nothing.
I explained the symptoms.
He then said he'd call the local ENT for their opinion.
He called back in five minutes and said to come down NOW.
The ENT came in, did a more thorough exam than the ER doctor did, and
proceeded to tell me that BUTTONS WILL NOT SHOW UP ON AN X-RAY UNLESS
THEY CONTAIN METAL.
I thought it was weird that they didn't require Christopher to drink
barium before the x-ray. I mean, they did in "Curious George Goes to
The Hospital" when the crazy monkey swallowed a puzzle piece.
But you sort of (maybe?) expect that they would know whether or not to
give him barium so that a plastic button might show up on the x-ray. We
showed them what the button looked like.
The ENT was convinced it was at the top of the esophagus (between the
clavicals) and got us in for surgery within a couple hours of our
arrival.
It took two minutes to get the button out.