Our first trip to the ER

Thursday evening around 5:15ish I was on the phone with my sister when I heard Mike yell, "Did you swallow that?!" Isaac started gagging and crying and Mike was frantically trying to get the mysterious object out of Isaac's mouth. Mike could see part of it in the back of his throat and stuck his hand down Isaac's mouth but Isaac was so distraught that dislodging the thing was impossible. We realized that the object was a spring that goes to a hanger clip, the kind that you clip pants to a hanger.

We debated what to do. I have heard that when kids swallow things like pennies that the doctor will just have you wait for it to pass into their stools. But this has two pointing sides and we were afraid it would get caught or something. We called the on-call doctor and when he didn't call back we decided to take him to the ER. He was still gagging and had an amazing amount of drool. He fell asleep in the car and the doctor called while I was on my way to the base hospital. He said to take him to Dayton Children's Hospital right away.

When we got to the emergency room we had to wait behind a few people and the waiting room had quite a few other people in it so I was worried we were going to have to wait forever but when the nurse admitting us called back to one of the rooms and said, "Don't call anyone else back," I realized it was more serious than I thought. They took him back immediately and sent us to a room. Eventually they sent him to x-ray and when the doctor came in she showed us the film. It was awful! The spring was lodged in his esophagus right about the same level as his collar bone. The doctor said they were going to have to call in surgeons to decide what to do.

All this time poor Isaac was crying and so scared and gagging and drooling. He would calm down and then another doctor or nurse would come in and he would start crying again because he was so scared. He kept saying, "Can I please go sleep in the car?" He had missed his nap earlier in the day and it was passed his bedtime and he was just exhausted.

The surgeon came in and ordered another x-ray and then explained to me the procedure. They were going to put him out and then put a camera down his throat to see where the exact location was. Then they would take that one out and put another one down with a hook at the end. Then they would carefully pull the spring out. He really scared me because he said if we waited much longer it could get stuck and puncture something going down. If it punctured his esophagus then we would have a worse problem. He also said the surgery would be tricky for them to get out and there was a possibility that as they pulled it out, they could puncture the esophagus. He said 1 of 5 children get teeth broken or gums injured from the camera. He referred to the procedure as "sword swallowing."

Isaac and I said a prayer before they took him that he wouldn't be scared and that Heavenly Father would protect him and then they took him. I was so nervous in the waiting room--they said it could be 15 minutes to maybe an hour or longer depending on the complications. It was a very fast procedure and the doctor said he was very surprised at how easy it was to get it.

They admitted him over night and I went up to wait for him in his room while he was in recovery. I heard him as they wheeled him down the hallway. He was so hoarse and crying for me. He cried for about an hour. He tried to yank the oxygen and IV and blood pressure cuff off of him and kept asking to sleep in the car. I crawled in bed with him and held him and sang to him until he fell asleep and prayed that Heavenly Father would help him sleep through the night.

After he fell asleep I noticed he had great big white and red splotches on his face so I called in the nurse and she said she thought he was having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic they gave him to heal any puncture that might have happened. They came in every hour to check him and by 4 AM the splotches were gone. Isaac slept through the night and they woke him up at 7:00 AM. He was angry and hungry (he hadn't eaten anything but a small chunk of bread at 3:45 the previous day). They said he could have liquids but nothing else in case there was a puncture. Finally at 10 AM they let him have some ice cream and chocolate milk.

Mike and the boys showed up around 10:30 and Isaac was a different person. He was so happy to see his brothers. He laughed and jumped and said, "I missed you!" At 12:30 they released him and he got to come home.

It is amazing to me the love I feel for my boys. I know I love them but it isn't until something happens that threatens their well-being that I realize more fully the love I feel for them. My heart just ached for him. I know that Heavenly Father was watching over him. The surgeon was so surprised that it came out so smoothly and was surprised at the size of the spring. I really feel like Heavenly Father heard our prayers and helped the spring come out easily. I'm so grateful that experience is over. I hope I NEVER have to take one of my children to the ER again.

Isaac right before they got him ready for surgery.

This is the spring Isaac swallowed. The surgeon brought it back to us after the surgery. Later the next day I found the container with no spring in it and I was freaking out. I could just imagine someone swallowing it again. We found it on the living room floor. Mike showed Isaac the spring when he got home and Isaac got this really upset look on his face and said, "That is a naughty thing. I don't like it."

Can you see the joy on his face now that Will is there? Will was crying for Isaac and said that he went to his room and asked Jesus to not let Isaac die. He woke up really early the next morning and ran into Mike and said, "Isaac isn't here!" He was so concerned for him. They just love each other so much.

This is Isaac when he got out of surgery and finally fell asleep. If you look closely you can see the splotches on his face.