Second Trip to the ER

It all started with swallowing our first foreign object: On Saturday, unbeknownst to me, John and Mary were playing a game in which Mary "fed" John "cookies". Unfortunately, those "cookies" were glass marbles and John accidentally swallowed one. John came and told me the news, almost in tears with worry.

I called our doctor and he and I concurred that with something as safe as a glass marble, this was a simple watch-and-wait situation. All was going well until Monday at 4:30 when I arrived home from an errand to learn that John's sudden falling asleep for a nap right before I left was really him succumbing to a fever, which I watched rising rapidly even in the half hour I was home.


The concern with a swallowed foreign object is that it goes into the lungs and causes pneumonia instead of going into the intestines. I called the doctor and he wanted us to take John to a pediatric Emergency Room. It was such a hard decision! I thought, if I were a mom of more kids who had dealt with many foreign objects and many fevers, I'd be a lot calmer to wait. Statistically, I knew it was likely John was simply coming down with a new illness. He and I have had a cold for about two weeks and mine had just developed (or I caught something new) into a terrible hacking cough. But I wasn't confident to keep him home and wonder if that fever had to do with internal infection.



I took John to our city's pediatric ER, asking Chris to keep Mary at home and promising to call him if I needed him. We've had only one ER experience before and it was at our tiny, clean hospital one mile from our home on a morning, so we were the only people in the huge, well-designed, and cheerful waiting room. Going to an urban pediatric ER at night is, let's say, an entirely different experience. The waiting room was tiny and we were packed in like sardines. I could definitely see much evidence of people using the ER as a regular pediatrician's office, which was distressing to me since it is that behavior that causes many hours of waiting for all of us.


Also, I noticed an interesting sociological trend of certain parents there speaking to their (sick!) children in manners I considered vile and terrible, and much swearing (including the worst of the worst words) said with children sitting right there in their laps. I was horrified. Even when I totally "lose it" with my kids and am shrieking and I take my anger to Confession, I have never even come close to saying what these various parents were saying to their children in normal conversation. It made me think that when I see certain people coming out of the ghetto who speak in such a disrespectful way, they come by it honestly if this is the way their mothers are speaking to them from their tiny tot years. There but for the grace of God go I.


Running out the door, I had grabbed John's favorite book of stories, which I knew would pass the time: his Bible. So, we sat there--me hoping he wasn't picking up on any swear words or disgusting phrases--and I read him story after story from The Good Book!

Finally we got processed out of the main waiting room to a private exam room. I was very grateful for the peace and quiet! One of the ways John occupied himself was taking about 150 photos with my iPhone, which he all declared very interesting.

Have I mentioned that John and I had not eaten dinner and were not supposed to eat while waiting? And John really hadn't eaten since breakfast because he had declined the meals served to him at lunch and snack?

John was incredibly patient for being a hungry four-year-old stuck for four hours in the ER. He never threw a tantrum and hardly even complained, just asking questions sometimes about why it was taking so long.

Mommy (32 weeks along) was very tired!

Finally, just out of extra caution, the doctor gave John a chest x-ray to confirm that the marble was not there, nor was there any signs of pneumonia. John wasn't scared at all and declared that he behaved "perfectly" for the x-ray and knew how to stand still and everything! His lungs are clear, which means the marble is in a "safe spot" and the fever indicates that he's getting sick with something new. Who knew we'd be so happy to have him sick with yet one more virus!