Beware of Yugoslavian Coins!

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!

What in the world, Immune System?!

So it's summer... and I have a "cold." I put it in quotations because I actually think it's a sinus infection, but have lost my little badge that says MD, so I can't say for sure.

But it's ridiculous! Who gets this in the summer? I must have one of the worst immune systems, because I catch EVERYTHING. If my kids have it, I'll get it. If my husband brings it home, I get it. (That sounded bad, but I'm not referring to STDs.) So, my kids seemed to have a bit of the sniffles a couple weeks ago and sure enough, I got it. But then it turned into a full blown infection! I tried taking Nyquil one evening and it knocked me out and rendered me useless for TWO DAYS. I can't take antihistamines for the same reason.

Then there's the sweating. It was actually quite mild weather-wise this past week, but I had the air conditioning on full blast while my family was bundled up under blankets. And I was STILL sweating! Thankfully my husband allowed me to nap frequently, but I've been going to bed around 8pm and sleeping all night, yet it still lingers.

I'm sure you're saying, "go to the doctor!" Don't try to reason with me!

Anyway, now that I've ranted about this and sufficiently grossed people out, I just wanted to conclude by saying my main reason for posting this was to let you know why I haven't been blogging a lot lately and why I might be slacking a bit in the days to come. Otherwise, things are going great despite the fact that I have NO BABYSITTERS and NO DAYCARE for the month of July... how will I cope?!