13 May, 2009

The mom with the yellow hat

This is how these things happen. We're having a party, it's 11pm and we're trying to wrangle the remaining kids into bed. Asher and two little girls were attempting to go to sleep along in a bed with a toddler in a portacrib beneath them. Needless to say, not much settling down was occurring. Soon we heard some coughing and screaming and Asher seemed to be gagging. I assumed he had too many doritos and we headed to the bathroom. He stopped coughing quickly and then explained that he had swallowed a hair thing. We looked around because I assumed it was a rubber band, but we found both of those. Only one of the 2-inch barrettes was missing.


It took me awhile to figure out what to do. I mean, there are many factors at play here--maybe he's making up a story, after all it is 11:30pm and getting any info out of 2-3 year-olds usually results in nonesense. Let me say that again, it's 11:30 at night--what kind of mother am I to have my kid up that late and apparently so hungry he resorted to eating sparkly metal? There was also the copious amount of margaritas (for me, not Asher: I'm not that bad of a mother). Eventually after some phone calls, I decided to bring him to the ER (it's about 1am by now). Sure enough--the barrette's in his belly (pic 1). The next day, it's in his intestine (pic 2). Good news because it passed all the really small parts and now just has to weave its way through the bowel and on out--"but let us know if he vomits blood or his belly becomes distended and he'll be rushed to surgery." Great.



Thankfully, he ate, drank and pooped to his little heart's content and, though we were diligently searching for its passing, the barrette remained illusive. Today's x-rays confirm that it is gone, though, so I don't care where it went. We also went to the bookstore and bought "Curious George goes to the Hospital" because I remembered an image from when I was a kid of George's x-ray with a puzzle piece inside his stomach. Asher got a kick out of this comraderie. In fact, he's enjoyed all the attention. Hopefully the surgery threats and prune juice will be enough to deter him from doing it again.


After Ryan's kidney stones last month, I have really spent enough time in the ER this year and don't even talk to me about our deductibles.

It is a good story, though--even worthy of Curious George.

4 comments:

amy said...

Oh no- not a case report picture of Asher!! You can imagine David's response("this is what happens when you add a girl baby and all that hair stuff to the mix...") but I am hugely sympathetic to the surreal ending of your margarita night. He's totally just breaking you in for the teenage years...youknow this isn't the first live-to-tell-about-it tale in Asher's young life and it sure won't be the last!

Daisy said...

great story, and pictures to go with it! I am glad everything "came out Ok"!

Amy from Occupation: Mommy said...

Oh, that must've been scary and gross. Thanks for including the pictures, the girls really enjoyed them! I'm glad everything turned out OK!

The Moser Family said...

So I had heard about the whole barrette thing through Mark, but I just now got to read it for myself. You are a better Mom than me, I would've just yelled at everyone and dealt with it in the morning. Hang in there - you're doing great!!