Drill Bit

THE DRILL BIT IS GONE!
January 22, 2008

For those of you that do not know the story - here it goes!!!

This all started 13 days ago!

On Wednesday, January 9, 2008 I noticed that Alan had something in his mouth. I asked him to get it out out his mouth so he walked into my bedroom. He is really good about spitting things out so I had no reason to be concerned that he wouldn't spit it out. Well - Alan came out of my room crying "Mommy I swallowed daddy's screw"! Of course I was frantic. I asked him to repeat it again and he said the same thing.

I picked up the phone and called Rusty and he asked me alot of questions like - What kind of screw? Where did he get it? Tell him to show you where he got it! Are there any more there in the place that he picked it up from? etc.... Rusty then told me to call Children's Healthcare and get their opinion as what to do. I called them and spoke to a wonderful nurse name Faith. She told me because we did not know what kind of screw he swallowed it would be best to take him to the ER and get an x-ray to make sure that it was not a sharp pointed screw. After talking to them I called Rusty back and he told me that he would meet me at the hospital.

I got to the hospital about 430pm and Rusty got there shortly after. We weren't out in the waiting room long and they called Alan back. Rusty went back there with him since he knew all the doctors and nurses there. About an hour later I got a text message from Rusty that said "Phillips Head Bit". Rusty then called me on the phone and told me that he knew exactly what it was as soon as he saw the x-ray. We were basically told that he should pass right through and make sure that he did not have any discomfort, no fever, vomiting, etc.

The next morning I woke up at 545am to warm chocolate milk being thrown up all down my back. Poor Alan was so sick. I got on the phone with Children's and they told me that they would have a doctor call me back. I got a call back from a doctor and he told me that if Alan throws up again within the next hour that I need to take him back to the ER. At 8:00am I called Alan's doctor and they told me that I would do best by taking him directly to Egleston. I called Rusty and told him and luckily he was already in Decatur so I packed Alan up and off we went. Now this is after throwing up 7 times since 545am. From the time we left our house to the time I got to Decatur - Alan was feeling much better.

Rusty and I made the decision to just watch Alan and see what happens so we decided to go back home and just wait it out since Alan seemed to be doing better.

Alan had no problems going potty. We set up a little basket for him to go in and then it was time to check it. Poop patrol was not fun but it was something that had to be done. Alan was really good about telling us when he went just in case we were not sitting there with him. Carrigan even helped out!

On Rusty's last shift at work one of the doctors in the ER asked Rusty about Alan and Rusty told him that he had not passed it as of yet. He suggested that since it had been more than a week that we might want to get him checked out again just to make sure that we had not missed something.

I made an appointment for Alan this morning so off we went. Alan was such a trouper. Poor little guy wasn't feeling too well by the time we got to the doctor. His tummy hurt and he felt sick. I thought for sure that the thing had gotten lodged. (That's what we thought happened the morning that he was so sick). Our doctor sent us off to x-ray! I got to go back there with him and got to look at the x-ray from the hospital and the new x-rays. There was definitely no mistaking what he had swallowed and the good news was that it was gone!

I guess somehow we had missed it or it just slipped through one of the holes in the basket and went straight down the pipe. Whatever happened to it does not matter anymore! The good news is - IT IS GONE NOW!!! YEAH!!!!

If you ask Alan if he will do that again - he is very quick to tell you no. No more daddy's tools or anything else in his mouth again!

13 days was a long time!!!

Here is a picture of the "foreign object" that he swallowed. Of course - this is not the actual one since I did not know when he passed it. I just hope that the one he swallowed was not as rusty as this one I found out in the tool box - LOL!!!

Kim