Ryan and the Nickel

We had a very traumatic day a couple weeks ago. We were at the store and Matt came to pick the boys up early. He had just gotten home from a business trip in Vegas and was going to take them home for the day. I was out front helping a customer and I heard Matt pounding on Ryan's back. I looked back and Ryan was choking. I went to see what was going on and Matt had scooped part of a green crayon out of Ryan's throat. He started crying and was breathing but he still didn't look quite right to me. So we decided to take him to the doctor. I really didn't want to go straight to the ER because I knew they would poke and prod him and I wasn't quite sure he needed all that. So we went to the pediatrician and sat and waited and waited. The whole time we waited Ryan was not himself. He was throwing up a lot and acted like something hurt. He kept saying his mouth hurt. The doctor finally checked him over and she wasn't quite sure if he still had something stuck in his throat. Since we only got part of a crayon out of his mouth we didn't know if the other half was still stuck. She decided to give him something to see if it would help him stop throwing up. So they gave him some emetrol. As soon as the nurse left the room after giving that to him, he threw it up. Then they decided to give him the topical phenergan (not sure if that's spelled right). We sat for a few minutes and he didn't throw up. So they gave him a popsicle to eat, he still didn't throw up. The doctor told us to go home and watch him. If he threw up anymore they wanted to know about it. So we decided to leave. Well, we didn't even get to the car and he threw up again. By this time both my shirt and his shirt were completely ruined. So we went back up to the doctor's office and they immediately sent us to Southwest Medical Center for an x-ray. The whole ride to the hospital and waiting in the waiting room was just terrible. You could just tell he was uncomfortable. Everytime he would cry he would gag and throw up. So they finally called us back for the x-ray, I couldn't go back since I'm pregnant. So Gabe and I waited in the waiting room. Not 2 minutes later Matt comes out and says that Ryan has a coin stuck in his throat. Not a crayon, a coin. And it was a point in his throat that it could potentially go down into his lung. Not a good thing. So they told us to wait there until our pediatrician called us with instructions. That was the longest 10 minutes of my life. He was throwing up more and everytime he threw up he just acted like he couldn't catch his breath. Our pediatrician called back and told us that the coin needed to come out and we needed to go directly to Children's Hospital. Once again, it was the longest car ride ever. And all this time Gabe is with us. So I called my dad on the way to the hospital to meet us and to pick up Gabe. I tried to hold it together but by this time I was a mess. So we finally got to the hospital, we checked in and we waited. I was sooo done waiting. My dad came and got Gabe and Matt's mom came up for support. When they finally called us back poor Ryan was so exhausted. He was just worn out. The doctor came back and explained the procedure to us. They were going to put a catheter down his throat. At the end of the catheter was a deflated balloon. Once they got it into position they would inflate the balloon and pop the coin back up his throat. This just sounded horrible to me until they told me he was going to be completely awake and they weren't going to give him any kind of pain reliever. I was just beside myself. So we walked him down to this room with a big contraption of some sort and a table with restraints. They wouldn't let us stay with him, which I was a little relieved about because I don't that I could have watched that. So I handed him over to the nurse and I lost it. I was trying so hard not to cry in front of him but I just couldn't hold it. So we went to the waiting room and waited some more. It only took about 15 minutes and they were done. They all came walking down the hall and I heard Ryan say "Mama!" You could just tell by looking at him that he felt so much better. He had swallowed a nickel. They said he was the best patient. He didn't fight with them when they laid him down. All he said was, "I don't like this" and "Done yet?" I was so relieved. Ryan was so thirsty when this was all over. All he wanted to do was drink. This whole thing started at 11:00 a.m. and we didn't leave the hospital until around 6:00 p.m. He was back to his old self jabbering away after we left the hospital. Here's a video I took a couple days later of him telling about his experience.