Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Well THAT was fun.

First, before I say another word, let me state the Goober is fine, to the point the little shit never knew anything was really wrong. It's me who needs a lie-down in a dark room with a martini and some Godiva. Preferably while the kid is duct-taped to a solid surface so I know where she is and what she's doing.

First thing this morning, before breakfast even, the Goob swallowed a penny. I had STUPIDLY given it to the kid to play with, thinking (stupidly) that at the age of three, she was smart enough (HA!) not to put it in her mouth. Yeah, RIGHT. I don't think I'd have ever known she swallowed it, except I saw it go down. A little hand waving, a couple coughs. I figured she'd choked on some spit or something - it was that minor - and asked if she was okay. She said yes. Then about thirty seconds later, it clicked, and I said "WHERE IS THAT PENNY YOU WERE PLAYING WITH????" and she said "It's in my mouth." and opened her mouth, and of course, the penny was not there.

So, first, thanks to EMT class, I evaluated her for choking. Since she was talking, that meant she was very likely fine. (General rule of thumb; if a person can talk, they can get enough air and their esouhagus is unobstructed enough that they'll be all right - even if their airway is clogged, they can clear it themselves with throat clearing, coughing, whatever.) I had her drink some water, she did without any complaint, and it stayed down. (If the opening to the stomach is blocked, anything that goes down, doesn't stay down long.) Yay for EMT class. I don't know how parents stay sane without it. (Well. Sort of sane.)

Then - being me - I hit the internet and googled about kids swallowing coins while she plowed through her breakfast as if nothing had happened. Again generally, if an otherwise healthy kid swallows a coin, and it gets to their stomach without them choking, it just goes on through with no trouble. Choking is the real risk, and obviously she wasn't.

The Goob was by then doing laps of the couch, waving her arms and laughing and yelling. Yet another rule of thumb from the EMT days - if the kid is wrestling you and screaming, odds are high they're fine. It's when the kids to limp and quiet you worry. Obviously the Goob was in great distress, what with the singing and all. And I thought 'Soon as I don't ask about this, the kid will wind up with copper poisoning.' (Copper can be toxic, you know. Especially in acidic environments. Like, say, your stomach. It's possible I know too much.) So I called the poison control center.

You always know it's a good day when you call the poison control center. (The Goober was by now laying on the floor, watching Dora the Explorer and playing with a box.) The conversation opened like this:
ME: Hi, my kid just swallowed a penny. Do I need to freak out?
LADY ON OTHER END: Is the child choking?
ME: No, she's singing and has eaten.
LADY: Ah. I don't think you need to freak out, then. Hang on, let me check the procedures.
Later I told the husbeast it was probably the calmest call they got all day.

Long story short, no risk of copper poisoning (though weirdly, a very low risk of nickel allergy), but the poison control center wanted me to call the pediatrician to make sure they didn't want an x-ray. I'm not a big fan of x-raying children for no good reason; it's considered kind of a bad idea, thought to possibly cause/trigger childhood lukeima and other crazy stuff. If I thought the kid was in real trouble I'd skip the pediatrician altogether and go to the ER and let them x-ray to their heart's delight. But this was about a kid who was apparently fine. One or two x-rays are unlikely to trigger ANYTHING, but then the Goob could have a cigarette and likely not trigger anything, and I'm not a fan of THAT, either. (Boy howdy, that was a run-on sentence.) Then I figured if the poison control center reported to someone and I didn't follow up, I'd wind up with CPS down on my head. (CPS = children's protective services. They're particularly rabid and wierd and arbitrary here. I prefer to avoid them.)

So I called the pediatrician. Left a message with the appointment clerk, who was very nice about the whole thing, we were both laughing and at one point I told her I wanted a perscription for the Goob - for duct tape.

He called back, I suspect thinking he was going to have to talk down the freaked-out mother from x-raying her kid, because he was clearly not in favor of it if everything else was normal. I told him that between her swallowing the penny and him calling, she'd eaten a banana, a bowl of teddy grahams, a peanut butter sandwich, two glasses of water, and done about sixty laps of the couch. She could be heard singing in the background and I added that, yes, the singing kid was the one who swallowed the penny. He kind of laughed and said it was best left alone, then, and warned about stomach cramps and fevers and that was it.

Mother of the year, right here, hoo yeah.



In an attempt to remain calm (woo sah), I have finished plying the black silk from Habu Textiles.


You can see by the second photo, this stuff is still REALLY thin. And that's triple-plied. There is no way it would have knit up right as-is, unless I pulled an Alwen and knit lace on sewing needles. (And I'm not gonna. And you can't make me.) As it is, I've got 675 yards of this stuff, and am wondering what in hell to do with it. I'm debating between lacy pullover and doily and beaded bag.

Then, yesterday, I got a lace whorl and the drive band to go with it, for my wheel. (All it is, is a gearing change that makes the yarn twist itself together faster.) With the change in gearing, there is a marked change in treadling. It's almost like... like... EXERCISE. So I'm back to the carbon fiber. I'd like to spin it laceweight so I can weave a couple-three scarves for Christmas, and I think I also want to knit myself a shawl with it. (A stealth shawl, shaped like a stealth bomber.) I've got over a pound and a half of the stuff left. I originally ordered two pounds, thinking I would knit a sweater for the husbeast with it. Then we both saw how the fiber behaved - like silk, very heavy, no memory - and dumped the idea. The husbeast now wants a hat. I can do that; I'm doing the ribbing around the head with teflon-coated wool and then the top of the hat with carbon fiber.


At the moment I'm practice-spinning the last of the FIRST half-pound bag. Three to go. Oy vey.




We have begun Christmas shopping here (mostly because the budget can't take one big shopping spree at any one time, not so much because I plan ahead per se), and today what should appear in the mail but the Christmas presents for the Goob and The Cousin (my nephew, who is three months older than she is and kind of triggered us having the Goob when we did, so she'd have a cousin near her age). We got both of them animal zoos from Fisher Price, the Little People stuff, that teaches the alphabet. If you've got a kid at Goob age on your list, and can afford it, it is AWESOME. I wanted to take it out of the box and play with it MYSELF when it got here. Details, here.



Now, I think I'm going to play computer games for the rest of the day. It's my low-cal alternative to a pound of Godiva and three martinis.

15 comments:

historicstitcher said...

I was beginning to wonder if everything was OK! Hadn't heard from you all day!

Never had to go through that experience exactly, but when he was about 15 months old, my Kiddo was choking on a bean and I had to do the kiddie-Heimlich on him. We were home alone, and he was turning blue. I whipped him out of his chair and was doing the upside-down-on-my-leg flip-flopping from front to back with the little compressions until it came out. Thank goodness I was a first responder in college!

And I have very vivid memories of sitting on the floor near my sister's head while my dad held her upside down by her ankles while my mom was whacking her on the back...and watching the penny fall out of her mouth and roll accross the floor.

I think you got off lucky. Be glad for it!

So are you going to be watching to make sure it comes out?

Alwen said...

What, no sewing needle lace? Well, poo!

An alternate use for pennies, which still works even though they are copper-plated zinc, is to slowly kill roof algae. Our roof was getting lots of it on the north slope, so I went up there with 15 cents in pennies and jammed them between the shingles. Looks like I need to put about 5 cents more up there.

And this is way easier on the nerves than realizing the child has swallowed one . . .

Amy Lane said...

The problem with four kids is that one of them is ALWAYS having a birthday (one in Nov., one in December) but otherwise I'm with you--buy it early!!!

The spinning is AWESOME--and I'm glad the Goober is okay...

Uhm--I've called the poison control center three times for Big T.

The first time he snuck out of bed and downed an entire bottle of peppermint extract when I was cooking at night.

The second time we were moving a couch and an old taquito fell out of it. (It BROKE when it hit the floor.) We got back inside after setting the couch down and said, "Where did the taquito go?" And Trystan rubbed his stomach and said, "Yum!"

The third time was the ex-lax time. That's a whole other blog post right there.

Bells said...

Eek. Not fun at all. Cheeky bugger, putting things like that in her mouth. Good work for keeping calm.

Does she stick things up her nose? That was my gig when I was her age. Loved it. Went to hospital for it, too, when it festered and got gross - it was a piece of some kind of breakfast cereal that got lodged. Nice. Kids huh?

LOVE the beautiful yarn.

TinkingBell said...

My 3 year old put a Lego man's hand up his nose - I have no idea why but luckily the dr pwith a magnifying glass and long forceps removed it! Kids - can't kill 'em and there's no resale!

Just worried same kids enormously by crying with laughter at the vogue review - and really - does this silver stretch mini make me look fat?

Anonymous said...

I swallowed a quarter when I was a little kid. My mom grabbed me by my feet and threw me over her shoulder until I choked it up (or at least that's how the family tale goes). It's amazing sometimes what kids survive with little or no lasting damage.

I just love Little People stuff! We still have my son's zoo, zoo train, Noah's Ark, castle, and Hanukkah family sets, and I still can't bring myself to give them away because they are so darned cute! He used to carry the zoo elephant with him everywhere, and when we bought my car, we thought he had lost it at the dealership and went back to look. Fortunately, it was just under the seat in my husband's car, and crisis averted.

Go Fisher Price! (Except the videos drive me batty, because I can't stand Aaron Neville's voice!)

Leonie said...

Glad to hear the goober is ok, kids are so good at giving us that little extra to think about on occasion!! My brother was good for sticking things up his nostrils...the hardest to remove was the Meccano screw (think eensy weensy tiny screw, 3-4mm diameter head) that the doctor needed to remove with extra fine tweezers he'd stuffed it up there so high! Mum still has it taped inside the kitchen cupboard door.
Today's fun with son no.2 was a couple of pieces of rice he stuffed up there while eating a "sushi" hand roll. He blew them out into a tissue thank goodness. So far we have retrieved peas, corn, rice bubbles (aussie breakfast cereal) and rice numerous times, I so don't need a trip to the hospital today!

Louiz said...

My speciality as a child was falling down the stairs (this had ratehr a lot to do with my sister leaving toy cars on the top step) and I had to get my head x rayed. I sat beside a little boy who was wiggling. His mum kept saying stuff about having ants in his pants and a screw in his belly... and when his x-ray turned up he had a screw a good two inches in his tummy.

roxie said...

As a convocation of wise men once said, "This too shall pass."

Anonymous said...

When my brother was that age he used to eat all kinds of things: dirt, pennies, grass clippings that had been sitting on the lawn for a day, half rotten pears by the fistful. The only time my parents took him to the hospital was the one time he decided to drink furniture polish. One time he did try to eat dog poop but fortunately my Dad caught him before he could put it in his mouth.

Laural said...

Glad everything is ok.

We've got a little over half of our Christmas shopping done and most of the birthdays. Including Mr. T we have 4 Dec birthdays and 2 Jan birthdays.

We bought Mr T the LP castle set a few years ago. We played with that all Christmas morning.

Donna Lee said...

My kids never swallowed anything unusual(that I know of)and we never had to have things extracted from orifices. I was so grateful. I have first aid and cpr and have never had to actually use them on anyone, except my family. Someone has to know what to do when my husband slices the top of his finger off on the table saw.

Anonymous said...

Oh boy, Poison Control calls....mine was when my son drank half a bottle of Liquiprin (liquid aspirin, maybe no longer on the market); Poison Control told me to expect a whammy of a diaper rash, and, boy, did he have one. His bottom looked boiled. And I lost some years off my lifespan.

Nobody tells you ahead of time about this stuff, which is probably a good thing, or the human race could die out. You recovered nicely, I must say. I don't think I did. ....MLE

Unknown said...

What sort of games do you play?

Just because I'm an insanely curious person ^_^

Liz said...

Well done on the not-freaking-out-on-the-phone thing...

My brother was about the same age when he told my mam he'd eaten a drawing pin (uhm - tin tack/thumbtack?) and they had a happy afternoon in hospital. Halfway through the process she realised she was meant to be picking up my five-year-old self from school at exactly that time, eight miles away... God knows what that feels like!

He also got a Chinese Chequers counter stuck up his nose when he was 6...

I'm going to remind him of both these incidents sometime, now he's a father of a nearly-one-year-old child...