Hayden's First Surgery

On Wednesday around 3 or 4 o'clock, I was sitting at the computer in the den.  The kids were in the living room watching tv and Hayden came up to me crying and said "mama, I swallowed 4 pennies."  I asked him about 50 times if he was sure and he kept telling me he had 5 pennies, and he swalled 4, and now he had one, which he put on my desk.  He was crying because he thought he was in trouble.

I thought at first, that they would probably pass...but called the doctor and left a message with the nurse just in case.  They called back and asked me to go ahead and bring him in for an xray.  So we did....the xray showed what appeared to be a quarter...not 4 pennies.

At that time, I got out a quarter and a penny and put them in my hand, I asked Hayden which one he swallowed, and he pointed to the penny.  I asked him how many, he said 4.  The doctor and I laughed and held the quarter up to the xray....exact size. 

The doctor said he could pass and to watch for it, but if we didn't find it by late the following day or early on Friday, to bring him back in for another xray.  By Thursday evening, no quarter, so I called and scheduled a follow up xray for Friday at 12:30. 

The xray showed the exact same thing--in the exact same spot.  It hadn't moved.  So the doctor wanted us to see a surgeon, right then.  So we drove across town to the hospital's outpatient surgery center and met with the surgeon, who was going to use a scope to go get the quarter.  It all happened very quickly...BJ left work and by the time he got there, we were already in pre-op.

Hayden was very scared and nervous, but despite that, he did great.  He knew something wasn't right and he was scared.

He kept saying "I don't wanna do this mama."  I felt so bad for him, but he did really great considering.  It was pretty traumatic for everyone....the nurse took him from me, screaming and crying for me, while grandma, daddy and I tried to hold back the tears.  The procedure didn't take very long at all, soon the doctor came out and told us how he did.

The doctor came to tell me that he retrieved THREE PENNIES.  They were stuck together, and apparently looked like 1 quarter on the xray.  So, Hayden was probably telling the truth afterall.  The doctor said if he did swallow 4, one of them probably moved on down and would pass. 

A few minutes later we were able to meet him in recovery.  He was still a little weapy, he wanted the IV out, the blood pressure cuff off, and the hospital bracelets off...but once we got all those off, he was great!!

He was starving, hadn't eaten since breakfast...so we went to his choice, chick-fil-a....he ate icecream first, then alot of chicken and fries....he was feeling fine.  We headed to square dance practice and afterwards got snow cone.  He was back to his normal self immediately and I was so glad!!

It was a crazy day that took an unexpected turn, but it all worked out and we're so glad!  Now, here's hoping that Hayden learned a valuable lesson about putting money in his mouth, ha!!!