A "Quarter" for Your Thoughts?

Well, this is new. I'm sure we've hit our medical deductible for the year and only three weeks into the new year! 

So I think Brooklynn must have some type of oral fixation issues. Here's how our weekend went: Tyler had a big wrestling tournament (which he placed 5th in!!) and we had to take Brooklynn with us for the last half of the day. She had brought two quarters with her from the car and I caught her sucking on them. I told her NOT to do that, it was dangerous, she could choke and die.....you know, the things most parents say. So she ended up purchasing some chocolate milk from the concession stand. Unfortunately, she found another quarter on the ground. (yes, I know, disgusting. And until you've been to a wrestling tournament,  you have no idea how more disgusting this is.) As we were leaving the gym after the medals ceremony, Brooklynn grabbed my hand and looked at me with a panic look on her face and was crying and choking and gasping. She was wheezing and looked so scared. She had been sucking on the other quarter and it slipped down the back of her throat and she started choking. I screamed for Chris and he looked at her and told me to grab a nurse. (Luckily there was medical personnel at the wrestling tournament) Tyler ran and grabbed one and she came running over. By this time the quarter had settled vertically and Brooklynn could breathe ok. The nurse told us we should take her to the emergency room and have her evaluated. Brooklynn was telling us she could feel it right in the hollow of her neck inside her throat and it hurt. So we hurried out to the car. She started to throw up (in my car…yuck!) but the quarter didn’t come out. So we rushed over to the ER at Orem Community Hospital about 4 blocks away.

  

Once there, she threw up again, but still no quarter. They took an x-ray and it was lodged right there in her throat.

 

They decided that it should be removed because it could shift again and block off her oxygen. However, they couldn’t do it at that hospital so they would have to transfer her to another hospital. (Luckily, we were able to get the surgeon to come down here or they would have sent her by ambulance to Primary Children's.) They had to call a pediatric gastroenterologist to do the procedure which turned out to be the doctor that McKenna sees to treat her Celiac Disease. So off we went to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center a few miles away. After checking in and being triage'd AGAIN, we were transferred over to the OR where we met the doctor and they prepped Brooklynn for the procedure. 

  

The first nurse couldn’t get the IV in so they had another nurse with more experience give it a try. Then they gave her some medicine to relax her. When the doctor was ready they knocked her out and took her away. A little side note: Since McKenna has Celiac, everyone in our family has a 1 in 10 chance of also having it. They want the whole family to be tested. But since it is REALLY expensive, and nobody else really shows any signs, we have opted not to have the whole family tested right now. But, since the doctor was going to be in there anyway he decided to scope her and take some biopsies and get that out of the way. So we’ll hear later this week, early next week if Brooklynn has it or not. Anyway, he retrieved the quarter and brought her out so we could go to recovery up on the pediatric floor. We stayed for about another hour while she woke up and had some crackers. Once they were sure she was fine they sent us on our way. It was a very stressful evening but we are so glad things turned out ok. We love our Brooklynn!

PS - I can't wait to see how much that quarter is going to end up costing us! NOT! Two ER visits and the OR, I'm sure we are going to hit our deductible.

Oh, and remember this? When she was a year old? She likes to put things in her mouth.

 A small disc battery