The Little Pin That Could

I lost three years of my life on Monday. It turns out that I am not very calm when something is happening to my child. The adventure started at about 9:30 A.M. I went up the stairs and left Carson alone for one minute, literally. When I came out of the bathroom I heard Carson gagging. I ran into the office and found him holding my pincushion and still choking. I put my finger in his mouth trying to dislodge whatever could be causing his gag.
He then threw up in my hand and went about his day. I was shaken and called the doctor telling her that I thought he may have swallowed a pin. She informed me that I should come in and get an x-ray. I was told the appointment was at 10:10 A. M., but when I arrived they informed me that it was at 10:30 (whatever). I tried to entertain Carson until 10:40, when they finally called us in.
The doctor ordered an X-ray and my nightmare began. They ushered me back into a room alone where I glimpsed the X-ray. Sure enough there was a pin in the middle of my babies stomach. I immediately started crying (I am an emotional girl) and began thinking of the worst case scenarios.
The doctor came to look at the image and informed me that indeed a pin was there. She called a surgeon down for a second opinion and I waited. Finally, after he called someone else to see if the hospital had a small enough scope for Carson they decided to send us down to Primary Children's Hospital.
The doctor called Eddie (yes, I was still a mess and had a hard time talking) and informed him of the situation. He was able to get off work and away we went.
When we arrived in Salt Lake they had a bed waiting for us and Carson was sent to get an X-ray after about an hour. The needle had moved lower into the small intestine, but was still retrievable.
We were told that we would be taken up for the scope at five. Around that time they sent some nurses in to give Carson an I.V. We waited again for an hour and a half before they finally called us to come up at around 6:30 P.M. (try and keep a 1 1/2 year old from playing with an I.V. it is not fun).
Carson was a champ the whole time. He was without food or water from 10:30 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. that day with minimal whining. We said goodbye and off Carson went to be anesthetized. Barely ten minutes later the doctor came to inform us that he scoped the stomach and small intestine to no avail. The needle was too far gone to retrieve.
Inside I was thinking,"If you would have scoped it when we arrived you would have found it!" However, I am not one for confrontation so I just listened. He informed us that it may pass and we should watch for bloody stool and a stomach ache. If either of these occurred then we were to bring him to the emergency room (how is that for reassurance). The other pleasant thing was that I was given the task of sifting through my babies waste to find a pin (ah the joys of Motherhood).
The doctor also told us that he has pulled thousands of things out of children and only about once every three years does the object perforate the bowel. He further assured that he has seen razor's come out without damaging anything. This made me feel a little better at least my baby swallowed a pin and not a razor (that has to be better, right?). Maybe it does make me less of a bad Mom.
So we went home feeling like we had just wasted our time and money. I was still a mess thinking about the negative outcomes. Finally, we arrived home at around 11:30 P.M. I popped some sleeping pills (NyQuil to be exact) and tried to get some sleep.
The next morning our first adventure with a diaper yielded great results. Somehow that large sewing pin made it through all of my babies little twists and turns without sticking in. How does that happen? I attribute it to the many people that were praying for us.
My Dad was discussing it with me and he observed, "I was thinking how strange the things we pray for are sometimes." and I agree. So thank you for everyone who prayed he would pass the pin.
Carson will be given the pin as a gift sometime in his life. After all a $5000 gift is a good one no matter what it is. I am thankful that he is OK even if it means we have to go without for the next ten years of our lives.
Here is a picture of the amazing pin (I know what you are thinking and yes, it has been sanitized).