Walker's Foreign Body



 





 

Monday night, as I was straightening up from bath time, the two big boys were sitting quietly on my bed watching a Christmas movie and Anderson was in his bouncy.  Next thing I know, the movie goes to commercial, and I see Jake reach over to knock Walker down and wrestle.  Walker immediately pops up (with the biggest eyes ever) CHOKING!!!  He was grabbing his neck and pointing at his mouth and I could see it plain as day in the back of his mouth- a silver coin.  (Apparently he was playing with it close to his mouth, and when Jake knocked Walker back, the coin went into his mouth.)  Y'all, I panicked.  I immediately started giving him the Heimlich/back blows as Jake ran to grab my phone to call for help; it was just a matter of time, though, before the coin moved and my sweet boy was crying that he had swallowed it.  :(  I have never been so scared in my life...well, other than when Walker went missing at the beach. *Sigh*

Walker told me that he could feel the coin in the back of his throat, so the pediatrician said to go ahead to the emergency room that he was going to have to have it surgically removed.  I called Tyson and told him to come home and then Walker and I headed out to the emergency room shortly after.

We got in pretty quickly and had x-rays taken within the hour of walking in the door...pretty impressive, huh?  And the x-ray confirmed it- Walker had a foreign object stuck in his esophagus and was going to need surgery.  Tyson got there shortly after the news and was able to stay with us for a little while we got admitted to the hospital and sent to a room.  Unfortunately, Tyson had meetings early that next morning, so he had to head back home to be at work the next morning.  They wanted Walker to stay the night so that he could be the first surgical case the next morning.

As you can imagine, Walker and I didn't sleep very well that night.  Luckily, though, they got us down to the OR around 6:30 and got things started.  It was only supposed to be a 5-10 minute procedure, but it ended up being more complicated then they anticipated and he was back there about 30 minutes before I ever saw a doctor.  Talk about freaking out!!  Anyways, the doctor said it was a dime, which is usually passable, but it was lodged pretty good.  He said they ended up having to intubate (breathing tube) Walker and it took some maneuvering and manipulating to get the coin out.  Therefore, we were going to have to stay longer for monitoring.  (Not cool for someone who has no family nearby and is relying on friends to help with my 3 month old and 5 year old).  Anyways, it took Walker a while to wake up from anesthesia, but once he did, he was completely fine.  We got home after lunch, and by the time Jake got home from school, Walker was back to his silly normal self! :)  I now call him my little piggy bank. :)