Human piggy bank?

Last night we were all hanging out at church and Alison came to me and said that she had swallowed a quarter and she felt it stuck just above her stomach. I quickly took her to a friend of ours who is a nurse and was also at church and she said we better take Ali to the hospital because quarters are big and it might be trouble. Thornton and I just assumed that it would pass, but thought we better heed the instructions we were given, especially since Alison was having pain.

On the way to the hospital, she started having lots of pain and really freaking out. It was all I could do to keep driving while trying to calm her breathing down. We got to the ER and it was packed. Seriously, we were like the 7-8th person in line for ONE registrar. And, not a person in front of us appeared to have any visible problem or was in distress in any way. Alison was really in pain by now, but we waited. I just didn't know if I should create a scene or not and no body seemed to think she ought to have their spot in line. Once we finally saw the registrar, we got sent back to a room immediately.

Everyone was so nice to us, but, as we all know, nothing moves quickly in a hospital. We finally got her x-rayed and eventually found out that the coin was indeed stuck in her esophagus and wouldn't pass on it's own. Thornton arrived just as they were putting the IV in. I'm so glad he did, because Alison is a Daddy's girl through and through and she needed her daddy there. And, I needed him there, because I was trying not to let her see that I was crying too.

A Pediatric GI doctor was paged and we were told that she would need surgery to remove the coin under general anethesia. They put a scope down her throat and remove the coin w/ a tiny pair of tweezer like things. Thankfully they gave Alison some medicine to help relax her before they took her back for surgery. And, did it ever work!! She was loopy! She thought it was hysterical that everyone had four eyes, two noses and two mouths.

The surgery itself took less than 10 minutes. She woke up in recovery very slowly, but was fine to be taken home. We got home around 1:30 a.m. She's still sleeping this morning.

Oh, and in case you care....it was an Iowa Quarter. :-)