Penny

On Thursday, April 21, Stahle was in the living room and I was in the kitchen and Stetson said she swallowed a penny. I'd heard a little cough and then a cry.  Michael and I didn't think too much of it, hoping/assuming it would just pass.  That night she didn't eat her dinner very well.  She'd throw it up after a small bite, but she did eat some other things, like an orange without trouble.  Michael said if she kept throwing up we'd better get her x-rayed.  The next morning she ate a sweedish pancake pretty good, took a nap and when she woke up and I tried to give her lunch, she threw it up so we figured we'd better take her to the St. V walk-in on Broadwater, which is where Michael works a couple Saturdays a month.  The x-ray showed that there indeed was a penny stuck in her little esophagus and that we'd need to take her to the ER.  Ugghh.  Not what we were hoping for.  We waited in the ER for about 3 hours, first waiting for the regular MD, then after he said we'd need an ear, nose throat doctor, we had to wait about 45 minutes for him.  He said its pretty routine, and that the whole procedure itself takes about 10 minutes, not including prep and recovery.  The doctor had us guess the year of the penny, but it was so tarnished from the acid in her esophagus we couldn't tell.  So at around 8pm, we went and saw her in recovery and brought her home around 9, which was a huge relief, I thought we'd be there all night.
Luckily, dad was in Billings that day so he came and got the kids from the ER and took them home with him.
Experiences like these are so scary!  It just makes everything in life seem fragile and unpredictable, when you've been kind of coasting along with no major setbacks as far as your kids' health goes.  I am certainly grateful she's ok and that we have modern medicine.