Keep The Change....

The coin is on the upper right of the picture if you couldn't tell.

I finally have 5 minutes to document what has happened since Monday. A lot happened each day, and due to a lack of sleep on my part I am still confused at what day it actually even is, but here goes:

Tuesday:

Kayler was acting a little strange. He was a lot more ornery than usual. I even called my dad to come take him for a few hours so I could get some things done. That evening I was at the Dr. with Gavin to discuss some issues he was having, and G.J. called while I was there and said that Kayler was vomiting violently, and for me to come home. Gavin said, “Well he must be puking because of that penny he swallowed yesterday.” I had no clue that he had swallowed a penny.

We arrive home, and there was vomit everywhere, Kayler was really sad, but I was having a selfish moment. I had been invited to a friends to wrap some Christmas presents. I just really needed to get out of my house so I got things settled at home and I went. I was not there long at all and G.J. called and told me that Kayler was pretty bad off and to come home. First off…G.J. never gets too worried, and second, he knows that I need a break and he never calls me to come home without good reason-so I knew I better go.

So, I get home to a screaming little vomiting boy. I sat there for a minute, and I just had the strongest feeling that I should take him to the ER. I let G.J. go to sleep and I went alone. They did an X-Ray and found what they actually thought was a Quarter. Kayler was getting worse and worse and the Dr. called Primary Children’s and they wanted us to send him by ambulance or life flight. I am thinking….hello, he swallowed a coin, it will pass, lets not overreact……..So we stayed there until 2 a.m. with strict instructions that if he got any worse that we had a standing order at Primary Children’s and for us to just drive. I had to sign paper work saying that we refused the ambulance and all that….and that was Tuesday.

Wednesday:

Kayler had slept with me and had a terrible night of pain and misery. The other kids had gone to school, and so I got him up and tried to focus on getting him to eat and drink. He refused. My dad even came over and brought him a slurpee, we tried having a tea party, which he loves…and still nothing. I had my parents come get me and we tried everything to get him to eat…and still nothing. He was pretty lethargic by then, so we headed to Dr. Pollary’s office. He took one look at him, ordered another X-Ray and had us back in his office. The coin was still in his stomach, which meant that it was not going to pass on its own. He called Primary’s again, and they said to have us come right out.

So at this point I have a million thoughts running through my head. G.J. decided he would stay home and keep life as normal as we could for Hallie and Gavin, and my mom took us out. The drive out I thought would take forever, but it went SO fast. The poor little guy finally decided he wanted a drink, and about 10 minutes after he started vomiting again. I felt so bad for him.

We got there and I just can’t even explain how awesome that hospital is. We walk in to the admitting, they ask right away if it was Kayler, said they had been waiting, walked us right up to his room and got things going. They put in an IV to hydrate him, did another X-Ray (coin still in stomach) and then we went to sleep……

Thursday:

I got about 3 hours of sleep between them coming in to check on him, me worrying, the bed being small, etc. but I was ready to face the day. The team of Dr.’s taking care of him came in and told us that unfortunately, the surgery would not be until 2 p.m. unless his condition worsened. So that left me with a very hungry sad little boy. They were awesome to say the least to help us. They brought in 2 real puppies for him to play with, sent him to an awesome play room, took him on wagon rides, you name it, they helped. Finally he was in so much pain and could not stop crying so they pushed the surgery up a bit. They came and got us and the actual procedure was so fast. They had to put him out completely and then they did a scope with a little grabber thing and they pulled out a Penny after all. The Dr. said he actually would have rather had it be a quarter because pennies made after 1992 are very dangerous to swallow because of a high copper/zinc composition. He found that he was in so much pain because the penny was starting to erode the lining of his stomach. So he gave us a now silver penny to keep as a memory of this rotten experience and some medication to repair his stomach. Kayler ate a TON after the surgery. They have room service and we called and ordered him crackers, a slurpee popsicles, a pb & j sandwich, sprite, water, an apple, and a donut. He ate every single crumb.
We drove home and he slept all night and so did I. That leads me to today.

Friday:

Today I am so busy, frustrated, and just over come with exhaustion. I am in charge of our wards super Saturday tomorrow, so I am trying to make up for lost time and get that all ready. I am having feelings of anger- like why does stuff like this always happen to our family. We have had SO many random things like this happen. This hospitalization makes for number 15 for my 3 kids. I know there are some people who thrive on the attention and are total hypochondriacs and actually like for this stuff to happen. That is SO not me, I pray daily for the opposite…just good health and no drama.

I just feel like people think I am a bad mom or crazy or want this to happen. I assure you I do not. While I know things could be worse, blah, blah, blah-this is my life, and it is bad and traumatic and hard to go through for me. Now I have that constant fear of my kids’ health and safety. Now I have the dreaded feeling of awaiting the hospital bills. We had ZERO extra money to begin with, and now this. I honestly don’t know what we are going to do.

I am however very grateful for that motherly intuition and guidance that I have received this occasion and times before. I know that is a wonderful blessing, and has let situations like this have good outcomes. I am also grateful for the true genuine kindness, concern, and prayers from our family, friends, neighbors, and ward members. It was very humbling to see how many people truly care.

So, moral of the story-watch your kids…..keep money and all little things off the floor, and pay attention to the holy ghost!

p.s. Kayler is getting a penny bank for Christmas….lol