The nickel saga

Last Sunday Melina was playing by herself with an old teapot when I chanced to look at her and see something metallic in her mouth. It was a nickel. I put my finger in (trying not to get bitten) and suddenly she gulped it down. It stuck in her throat for a second, I patted her on the back, and down the esophagus it went.

I'm not usually much of a worrier (except when it comes to poisoning... that's my #1 fear) but this kind of freaked me out. I called the doctor on call and left a message; then I called the nurse at Providence Hospital and left a message; and then, not hearing from either one for way too long, I asked Jeff to call his friend who is in medical school. When we finally heard back from them all, they said the same thing - wait for it to come out. The Providence nurse had me give her food and water to make sure everything went down alright, and the naturopathic doctor recommended giving her roughage to move things along in the digestive tract. Meanwhile we had to sort through her poop (with wooden chopsticks) and wait.

After 36 hours, Youngsoon was the lucky one who found it. It had turned blue during its trip, but was otherwise unscathed. Apart from the scary swallowing incident, it didn't bother Melina at all. I cleaned it off (and sanitized it) and I'm going to paste it in her baby book.

A few days later, Jeff said, "you know that flashlight she was playing with the other day? I think she might have swallowed the light bulb." Here we go again. Fortunately, he found it on the floor a few hours later.