In the summer of 1997, I went to Yugoslavia by myself to visit a friend. It was a great experience! I brought some coins back with me as keepsakes.
June 27, 2010: A few weeks back I had been going through all my foreign coins and did not want to get rid of my coins from Yugoslavia. I left one on the dresser in my bedroom and kept forgetting to put it away. A, 4 years old, apparently decided this morning that it was a good idea to swallow said coin. Out of my two kids, I would have NEVER expected A to be one to do that sort of thing! She never was one to put random stuff in her mouth, even as a toddler. So, when I walked in my room, not knowing she was even awake, she was lying on the floor crying. I asked her what was wrong, she said, "you're going to be mad at me." I asked again what she did and she told me she swallowed my coin.
I am a pretty calm and laid back person, so I asked her why, she didn't know and we went downstairs. I just figured it would pass. But, she kept crying and telling me it hurt, so I called my parents for some wisdom. They didn't know, so my mom told me to google it (like mother, like daughter!) I googled it and the first site I found that was reliable said to immediately take them to the doctor. So, we headed to the ER. (I woke my husband up to come along and dropped L off at the in-laws.)
An x-ray was taken to determine where the coin was. The ER doctor consulted and said he would like to get a surgeon's opinion, so made a call to the surgeon. The surgeon came in on his day off for a consult and decided she needed to have it surgically removed. It sounded pretty straight forward to me, so I was still calm. (I had thought it was a Canadian coin at the time, too.) So, they called in the surgical team, once they all arrived, they took her into the OR, put her out, stuck a tube down her throat and removed it. (It was stuck in her esophagus.)
All good! Time spent at the hospital- 6 hours. And hopefully a lesson learned to A not to swallow foreign objects... or American ones either!
OMG! I'm so happy she is alright, how scary
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