<p>^^sure, just don’t submit that essay with a paper clip</p>
<p>^^^ GAK!!! :eek: ^^^</p>
<p>Glad everything is coming out alright. Heh. When my S was a toddler, I was pushing him in the stroller at the mall. I had just purchased something and he asked to hold a penny. He lightly tossed it up in the air and caught it. So proud of himself, he did the ol’ “look-at-me” and accidently swallowed the penny with the next toss. Doc said it would “pass” and to be sure to monitor the diaper output to be sure. My husband thought this was the funniest thing and had a bet going in his office whether it would come out heads or tails. He used a plastic knife to cut through the uhhh, output, and he determined that it was “heads” up. Boys, sigh.</p>
<p>Glad he’s okay. I swallowed a dental crown once and it was not fun to search for it. It was too valuable not to find!</p>
<p>Oh, you don’t even want to know about my H’s tapeworm! But I’ll tell you anyway. First he knew of it, it had “shed” segments. Yards and yards and yards. We went all over the county trying to get a prescription filled, finally found the anti-worm medicine at the county hospital. The pharmacist said that the last time he had filled that particular prescription was for someone who had just come home from Viet Nam. He said, “It works great on my cat, though!” H was supposed to look for the head of the tapeworm to make sure that it came out, but he was too queasy I guess. Anyway, he hasn’t had any more symptoms, and this was 25 years ago. We think he got it from eating microwaved whitefish on a UAL flight. Maybe a good thing that they don’t serve meals any longer?</p>
<p>OK, one more story, this one about my son when he was 13. Thirteen-year-old boys have no brains, just testosterone and bravado. This has been clinically proven. Anyway, got a call from the school nurse - “Kiddo is fine…” (yeah, right). Son said a shot put had “dropped” on his middle finger of his writing hand. Of course I believed him. Took him to the Emergency room for finger x-ray and repair. The bone was chipped and cracked, and the nail bed had to be sewn back on. Got him home, and his dad questioned his story. Sure enough, he and a friend had been playing catch with the shot put. Friend had underthrown, and son made a diving catch. Older sister - “The PE teacher tells you every class time not to throw the shot put around.” Son - “He never told us that.” Me - “Not when you were listening, anyway.”</p>
<p>The plastic surgeon was amazed at how fast the nail grew back, a matter of weeks. At the time I was buying him larger shoes every 3 months, so I wasn’t all that surprised.</p>
<p>Years ago my then seven year old son was watching Jeopardy (his favorite show at the time). For some dumb reason he put a foreign coin a little bigger than a quarter in his mouth. His contestant won, he got so excited he jumped up and down.
Down went the coin. Long story short it lodged in his esophagus and he required surgery. Who knew that if something is in the esophagus you can’t Heimlich it out?
I do now…</p>
<p>Wow, ebeeeee, you’re all very lucky that it didn’t lodge so he couldn’t breathe.</p>
<p>DougBetsy, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that your son will be able to locate the infamous clip soon :)</p>
<p>DB- Glad to know your DS is ok. A nice College Essay maybe :-)</p>
<p>Serious post about little kids swallowing coins. At age 5 when S-2 swallowed a penny, 911 sent an ambulance fast-speed to escort him to hospital to x-ray. We couldn’t believe it. They explained that, until x-ray showed it had descended past a certain point in his windpipe, they had no way to know if it would next turn horizontal and cut off his breathing while we parents drove him to hospital. </p>
<p>Two outcomes: Good: hospital x-ray showed penny far enough down throat, so S-2 was fine.</p>
<p>Bad: H lost a job opportunity. While all this was happening, a search committee was on phone with DH. Hearing the background noise by phone, they asked him what was happening. He said, “Oh, it’s fine; my S swallowed a coin and they’re taking him away by ambulance but my wife is on it.” Committee unimpressed; job went to someone else. Oh well.</p>
<p>I can’t help but notice it’s all “my son…” Girls just don’t seem to do things like this. Closest one we had was when D2 was stabbed with a pencil by a BOY. We are not created equal.</p>
<p>I wasn’t going to post this, because of all the things I’ve ever posted here, it’s the one that would cause her to kill me if she found it, but guess what oldfort: My D is an exception. Coin/windpipe/extraction under sedation. </p>
<p>I’ll tell you what supports your theory, though. It happened on H’s watch. (That’s not fair at all, though - stuff like this can and does happen on anybody’s watch.)</p>
<p>DougBetsy-
Not a regular paper clip?? Was it an alligator clip or a butterfly clip?? Either way-- Ouch!!
Older s swallowed a penny when he was maybe 6 and we were skiing in Colorado (everything happens to our family wehn we are out of town…). Fortunately ski slopes have lots of xray equipment, so we were able to get him xrayed. But then we were heading on to visit inlaws in AZ, and he got really sick (turns out it was unrelated to the penny) but we had to take him to the hospital in Arizona. Inlaws had us go to the closest general hospital-- dont think there was a pediatric hospital nearby. However, in the waiting room was a magazine with a big article all about the problems of taking a child to be treated in a general hospital :eek:</p>
<p>BTW, we still have the xrays… brought them home with us</p>
<p>I went to a rock music camp a few years ago. The camp director divided everyone in to bands- you wrote a song, rehearsed, and eventually recorded and performed it. On the second night, the bands were supposed to go up in front of the camp and introduce themselves… one band was missing their bass player, because- apparently- he had swallowed a guitar pick. The ER docs apparently tried to get him to throw it up, but that didn’t happen. He was fine (to this day I laugh about it)… on the final concert, the last night of camp… he announced that the guitar pick had, well, “passed”.</p>
<p>I stabbed myself with a pencil, it gave me a permanent tattoo. (I am a girl.) :)</p>
<p>A boy stabbed me with a pencil and gave me a permanent tattoo. It was an accident, however.</p>
<p>I am going to admit it here, I actually brought D2 to her pediatrician’s office because I was afraid she would get lead poisoning. Her pediatrician told me that lead in the pencil was really not lead. I was a bit embarrassed, but how was I suppose to know. D2 still has a tattoo on her leg.</p>
<p>I really couldn’t imagine what I would have done if my kid would have swallowed a coin, paper clip, or anything.</p>
<p>So with girls, it’s pencil lead… I have a “permanent tatoo” on my leg. Was fooling around and acting dramatic at summer camp - stood on the foot of the bed and then fell back at the right part of the story. Leg came down on best friend’s pencil as she tried to catch me.</p>
<p>My brother stabbed me with a pen. My permanent tatoo is on my back.</p>