The Great Coin Caper...

It is 7:45 am. J is out of school for a snow day. We're all still in our pajamas. I'm in the kitchen cleaning up breakfast. From the other room I hear the sound of my baby girl choking. It wasn't your typical "choke on a Cheerio" kind of sound. It was a true "I CAN NOT BREATHE"--somebody do the Heimlich kind of sound. OH-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO!!! I rounded the corner into our bedroom to find her gasping for air but screaming between gasps. The good news: She's breathing. Praise God! The bad news: this is what I see in her hand...
Except the dime and the quarter she has in her hand are covered in vomit. Lovely. I'm trying to calm her down to figure out what happened.

M: MG, did you swallow the money or did you spit it out in your hand?
MG: [still screaming and gasping] YES!
M: Which one? Did you swallow it or spit it out?
MG: [crying & pointing into her mouth] YES! IT HURTS!
M: What hurts?
MG: [pointing to upper neck] IT HURTS!
M: Did you swallow the money or spit it out and it scared you?
MG: [holding neck and screaming] IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!
J: Is MG going to die because she swallowed money?
M: No, MG is not going to die? Did you see her with money in her mouth?
J: Yes
M: Do you know how many coins she had in there?
J: A LOT!

Somebody cue the Mother of the Year music. At this point MG is still screaming but she's no longer gasping for air. She keeps saying "IT HURTS! IT HURTS!" and pointing to her neck over and over. This is the point where the Mommy calls the Pediatrician's office and politely demands asks to speak to a nurse immediately. Lucky for me, Dr. Tim's nurse just walked in the door.

M: Hey! This is Mommy Womble. MG just choked on a few coins. I think she may have swallowed some. I need to know what I'm supposed to do now. [feeling like a complete idiot]
RN: Is she breathing?

[I must admit I found that question hysterical. If she wasn't breathing would I be calling you? Oh wait...I don't have a good track record for calling 911 when I need it, now do I? No comments Anna M]

M: Yes she's breathing. She coughed up a dime and a quarter
RN: Do you know if she swallowed anything?
M: No
RN: Do you know how many coins she had to begin with?
M: No [if I knew my 2 year old was playing with coins would I let her continue?]
RN: Hold on. Let me talk to Dr. Tim [on hold]

RN: Mommy, didn't she have brochitis a few weeks ago?
M: Yes
RN: Why don't you bring her in for an xray--we want to be sure if there's anything in there it went into her stomach
M: OK, when?
RN: Come on in right now
M: OK

CRAP! Why does this stuff always happen before I've had a shower? Off to the MD office... Why we had to go to the office before we went to a different building for the xray is beyond me (but that's not important to the story). The x-ray confirmed she did indeed swallow a coin. Dr Tim said "it looks to be a quarter or a nickel but there's no way to know for sure by the positioning on the x-ray". PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Apparently dimes and pennies are no big deal but quarters and nickels can cause problems in children under three. "Keep an eye on her and be sure to inspect every diaper until you see the coin again". Lovely. 50 hours later we found the culprit...Thankfully his prediction was wrong. It was a dime. No need to worry. This is not the actual coin that took a two day mini vacation through MG's GI system. That one went straight in the garbage. That was .10 we could live without. Who knew motherhood could be this exciting?