A Story about a Dime

Caution: I might mention poop once or twice.

Bode still needs a diaper for naps and bedtime because, well.. he gushes out pee like he’s Niagara Falls when he’s asleep. He will have gone to the bathroom 5 times that morning and once again before nap and still wake up in 2 hours with a full diaper. It’s the craziest thing. Anyway, I was laying him down one afternoon to put a diaper on him. I didn’t realize at the time but he had a dime in his mouth. He immediately started choking on it and I swiped around his mouth trying to see what it was. He was mad that my hand was in his mouth and he was making it impossible to feel around. I looked down and saw a dime in the back of his throat. Almost immediately after that he swallowed it. Ugh. I was annoyed but really didn’t think much of it. Kids swallow crap all the time, right? Fast forward like 3 days and I finally got around to telling Clint about the whole ordeal. Clint was acting really worried and insisted that we check every poopy diaper because his internet research indicated it should come out 3 to 5 days at the max. I sifted through all his old diapers and made myself check the new ones every day. This is a lot harder than it sounds, especially being pregnant. GROSS. I never found the dime and it had been about 10 days at this point. He started acting lethargic, wouldn’t eat much, had a low grade fever, and started throwing up. A few days into this stomach bug thing I called his pediatrician. I told them about the dime. They didn’t know for sure if all those symptoms were a result of the dime, or if he just had a bug or what. They suggested we take him into the hospital for x-rays immediately. Normally it wouldn’t be such a big deal but ever since the surgery it seems like the tiniest little thing ends up being a big deal for Bode.

 

Bode in the waiting area at American Fork Hospital.

Bode did great and laid on the table alone like a champ. I couldn’t be next to him because of the whole baby in belly deal. The image pulled up and sure enough I see a dime. Of course the techs can’t say a word to you so I was sent home to wait on a call from his Dr. A few hours later the same nurse I talked to before called me. She said that they did see a dime and that she and Bode’s Dr. were in shock because they didn’t think it would actually still be in there and that they had to suggest the x-rays just as a precaution. She said we had to take him into Primary Children’s ER right away. Um… what?? She told me they were the only facility with the tools and surgeons etc. to help him.  I asked her if there was anything else we could do and that seemed a little crazy. She said unfortunately that was our only option. Hmm. Clint got home from work about an hour later and we both talked it over and decided that was ridiculous. We’ve been in the ER with Bode before and it’s not a good time to say the least. It was already 6:30 and Bode was getting ready for bed and driving an hour and spending the night in the ER was not going to happen.

I decided to call Bode’s surgeon to get a second opinion. He wasn’t there, but I talked to the one on call and they looked over the x-ray. She said that it didn’t look like an emergency situation but that we should bring him into the office the next morning for another x-ray and consult a surgeon. So first thing the next morning I drove all the way down to Primary Children’s for another x-ray. It didn’t really look like the dime had moved at all. It was still chilling in his upper intestine. We waited in the waiting room for what seemed like FOREVER (maybe 2 hours?) and finally were able to talk to a surgeon. She said we really shouldn’t worry about something as small as a dime for now, and that we could do a few things to help it move along. We have been giving him miralax and trying to get him to drink a lot of juice. This is not an easy task because he hates juice! The miralax is awful because it just gives him the runs. He is having no trouble going #2!!! There is just never a dime in it. There was no indication the dime was actually stuck, especially since he wasn’t having issues going to the bathroom. All the symptoms the previous week were probably due to a little stomach bug. If the throw up had been because of the dime, it would be green and more like bile since the dime had already passed through his stomach. Bode throws up ALL the time anyway, so we are used to it by now and I never thought it was due to the dime in the first place.

We made a follow up appointment with the surgeon 6 weeks from then (April 14th), so it would be about 8 weeks from the time he swallowed it. She said they’d do another x-ray and see what to do from there. The only option for removing it is surgery because it was too far up for a scope to reach. Having the dime inside of him was less of a risk than putting him through surgery to remove it. It’s been 3 weeks and 1 day and still no dime!!!! I am so baffled because where it was in the x-rays meant that it hadn’t even made it to the lower intestine where he had the surgery at birth. We are really hoping if it ever makes it’s way down to the lower bowel it can pass through without issues.

I really hope it comes out before that appointment so we can cancel it and move on with our lives. I am so over sifting through poop.

 

Clint and Bode hanging out while we waited. I’m so glad Clint left work to be there with us. It was a long morning.

I never thought I’d be hanging out in the surgery part of the hospital ever again!

Oh and Bode threw up in the car on the way home. Luckily Clint was driving behind me and pulled over with me to help clean it up. And he fell asleep for like 20 minutes on the drive home and refused to go back down once we got home. He was a royal pain the rest of the day.