A Penny Saved is NOT a Penny Earned

Okay. So yesterday mid-afternoon, my daughter comes to me, fingers down her throat telling me that her throat hurts. This is, to say the least, unusual behavior so I start to ask her some more questions. "Where does your throat hurt?" Right here, mommy (she points to the bottom of her neck.) I can't get the penny out. (???) "What penny", I ask? The one I swallowed...and I can't get it out. Of course, by this time she's upset that she's lost her penny and I'm half-expecting this penny to get stuck and have her turning blue at a moment's notice.

A few quick calls to the doctors and the med-stop clinic later and we're on our way, guns blazing, to Penrose Hospital. Within 15 minutes (I couldn't believe we got in that fast) we were back in a bed waiting for the doctor. Xrays quickly confirmed that she had indeed swallowed a coin and it was at the base of her esophogaus. Surgery would be required to extract it! Yikes!

It's at this point that we discover we have two nearly dead cell phones. (Can it get any worse?) So we made two quick calls to the grandparents and made arrangements for our son, while the doctors tried to determine if a general pediatric surgeon could do the extraction or if a pediatric specialist would be needed. If so, we would probably need to drive to Denver.

Thankfully, a general pediatric surgeon could handle it and we were promptly transferred to Memorial's Children's Hospital across town, where they tried (unsuccessfully) to remove the coin. Thankfully, however, it moved so that it is no longer blocking either the esophagus or the stomach, so time will heal everything.

Needless to say, however, it was an incredibly long night/early morning for all of us. Doctor's expect that she'll pass the coin and be back to "normal" in 24-36 hours but advised us that we'd probably never see the penny again. (shucks.) Kate is disappointed, but the surgical staff at Memorial gave her a teddy bear complete with matching bracelet and hair mask appropriately named - you guessed it - Penny.

She gave us all quite a scare, however, she should be fine in a while. Hopefully this is the end of her coin-swallowing days.