Penny for your thoughts
Tuesday afternoon I was still out at the pharmacy picking up something for Eli. Eli was hanging around where Alexis was. She thought he was munching on a pretzel. Then he made a loud exaggerated swallowing noise and started to freak out. He told her that he had been hiding a penny from me and that he had been chewing on the penny, then he swallowed the penny, and finally, he had lost the penny.
Crap. Well that was the original thought. Wait for him to poop it out. Within a few hours Lexi had spoken with on-call docs in LA and SF. They requested we get an x-ray to see where the penny was at. I had to go to work at midnight. Fortunately Auntie Spooky was able to come up and watch Robin who was asleep by that time. Lexi dropped me off at work on her way to UCSF. I was an hour and a half early, but it was the easiest arrangement.
The ED was not very busy that night. They got in and had a few x-rays done and were on the way home before 0100. The x-rays confirmed that the penny was sitting in his stomach. The plan at that time was still to let him pass it. If it didn't happen after 2 days further action was planned. We did a quick shuffle to get them home and leave me with the van so I could get home from work and also to get all of us some food.
Wednesday morning we took Josh to Sacramento so he could head back to LA (OC, whatever) with his Dad. While stopped at a Del Taco for some lunch we talked with more medical staff from both hospitals. LA was much more concerned about leaving the penny in. To the point that they unless it had left the stomach they wanted it out that day. Arrangements were made to have this done at UCSF. We detoured in San Leandro and dropped Robin off at my Mom's.
Without hurrying we were at the hospital before 1500. There was a bit of waiting, but not unreasonably so. New x-rays confirmed the penny's location, still in the stomach. So the plan was to go in with a scope and a special grabber. This is common procedure and Eli is far from the first to have it done.
Paperwork held things up for a while but once they started, it was less than 10 minutes to take care of it all. We grabbed something to eat while he was in surgery. After he was done with his brief recovery the surgeon came back by and gave us the penny as well as a few pictures of Eli's stomach. We were out and on the road by 2000. This is an amazingly short period of time to have anything accomplished, much less minor outpatient surgery.
So everything is good and hopefully in the future #1 will refrain from ingesting any non-comestible items.
Crap. Well that was the original thought. Wait for him to poop it out. Within a few hours Lexi had spoken with on-call docs in LA and SF. They requested we get an x-ray to see where the penny was at. I had to go to work at midnight. Fortunately Auntie Spooky was able to come up and watch Robin who was asleep by that time. Lexi dropped me off at work on her way to UCSF. I was an hour and a half early, but it was the easiest arrangement.
The ED was not very busy that night. They got in and had a few x-rays done and were on the way home before 0100. The x-rays confirmed that the penny was sitting in his stomach. The plan at that time was still to let him pass it. If it didn't happen after 2 days further action was planned. We did a quick shuffle to get them home and leave me with the van so I could get home from work and also to get all of us some food.
Wednesday morning we took Josh to Sacramento so he could head back to LA (OC, whatever) with his Dad. While stopped at a Del Taco for some lunch we talked with more medical staff from both hospitals. LA was much more concerned about leaving the penny in. To the point that they unless it had left the stomach they wanted it out that day. Arrangements were made to have this done at UCSF. We detoured in San Leandro and dropped Robin off at my Mom's.
Without hurrying we were at the hospital before 1500. There was a bit of waiting, but not unreasonably so. New x-rays confirmed the penny's location, still in the stomach. So the plan was to go in with a scope and a special grabber. This is common procedure and Eli is far from the first to have it done.
Paperwork held things up for a while but once they started, it was less than 10 minutes to take care of it all. We grabbed something to eat while he was in surgery. After he was done with his brief recovery the surgeon came back by and gave us the penny as well as a few pictures of Eli's stomach. We were out and on the road by 2000. This is an amazingly short period of time to have anything accomplished, much less minor outpatient surgery.
So everything is good and hopefully in the future #1 will refrain from ingesting any non-comestible items.