Not so Pretty Penny

Corbin and I haven't been feeling well the past few days, so we decided to stay home from church today. (No it is not the swine flu, in case you were wondering :) And it turns out you do get blessings for attending church, such as, if you aren't home then your 2 and 1/2 year old doesn't have an opportunity to swallow a penny. Lesson learned.

The day started out great. Caleb took Corbin to the store yesterday and let him pick out a card (or a book as Corbin calls it, since he of course picked out the biggest, thickest one there) and some chocolates for me. It is a pop up card and Corbin absolute loves opening it and yelling "ta-da!" or "popcorn!" (Don't ask, we aren't quite sure where that came from.) Then Caleb let Corbin be a 'helper' and make me breakfast in bed. He is such a sweet little boy and really does enjoy it when he gets to help out and loves to do nice things for me.


So then later, I am sitting out on the couch nursing Makelle when I hear Corbin gagging like crazy and whimpering. So I set her down and rush back into our room to find Corbin sitting on our bed with the spare change jar, choking with blood dripping out of his mouth. Scary! After a few minutes of spewing blood and coughing, I throw him in the car and we speed over to the instacare.

We walk through the doors and without even giving a medical history the nurse says, "oh, I know him, he is the cute little little boy with asthma, that threw up after we gave him albuterol last time!" Never good when emergency medical workers instantly recognize your child.

The nurses make sure his stats are stable and he is breathing okay and then they do an x-ray to find the penny and make sure it isn't stuck in his throat. They never could find out where all the blood was coming from, either he bit his tongue while choking or the penny cut this throat on the way down, we don't know which.


(This isn't his actual x-ray, just a similar one I found online. I guess my child isn't the only one doing dumb things, because there were actually quite a few to choose from.)

Eventually the bleeding stopped though and he started swallowing normal again, so they sent us home to wait for it to pass. He has to go back in tonight for another x-ray to make sure it is moving through his system, but otherwise he should be fine.

Oh this child. He already has a longer medical record than Caleb, Makelle and I combined. At least his familiarity with the medical world has eliminated all fears that most children have and he is a good little patient and always very helpful and friendly towards the medical staff.

Sometimes it is hard being a mom (like when your child does stupid things and lands himself in the doctor's office) but then it makes it all worth it when he runs up to you with a giant card and says, "Mommy, it's your special day! I love you!" and then starts to sing Happy Birthday (since he thinks that is what you do on someone's special day... of course). I know everyone says that, but it is so true. Kids are the best, you can't help but love them, even when you are mad at them!