well well

Just in case you weren't already sure that everyone has WTF moments… Keaton decided to eat a nickel and it got lodged in his throat. Yep, after my initial disbelief as he simply told me that he "swallowed a penny" it was a little scary because he kept crying about how much it hurt and acting hysterical. As I tried to call the doctor, I popped him right in the car and drove straight to the ER. Turns out with little guys like him it doesn't always just make its way to the tummy where it just passes on its own. If it gets really stuck, they need to remove it with sedation and surgery. When we arrived he calmed down a bit but was still clearly uncomfortable, so they gave him an X-ray right away.  It showed up right away lodged in the lower part of his esophagus just about in the exact spot he was pointing and holding onto in his squirmy pain.

The doctor told me that this was her sixth case of a kid swallowing something in two days! It still doesn't make sense to me, and Keaton has no explanation for why he did it. He hasn't mouthed things here at home or at school in years, and wasn't ever really that interested in mouthing things even as a baby. My only theory is that there is a kid at his school that puts everything in his mouth (even licks metal rusting doors which gets Keaton all upset) and his mom really gets on his case about it - so I think it planted a really nasty seed of curiosity in Keaton's head?  It was just such a huge relief that after a little over 5 hours in the ER eating just popsicle and juice, they did another X-ray and it had made it's way into his stomach.  Hurray!  Everyone was relieved that he did not need to be admitted and deal with the surgery. I never realized what an ordeal it can be!  This guy, even in the womb, has a habit of giving us big scares, followed by a huge sense of relief. I do think he learned a good lesson and won't ever do that again.