Shooting Star

I've have four kids. The oldest is over seven years old. That means I have had experience with kids putting things in their mouths for at least 7 years.
But today was a first.

I had to call 911 for it.
We had picked up the front room this morning and had been playing elsewhere most of the day. Early this evening I put out age appropriate toys for Giddy to play with so I could go through mail, deposit a check (remote deposit) and put away dishes etc. I could hear a tv on upstairs and Zurich telling Olea to shut it off so she could do her homework and come play pirate with him so I glanced over at Giddy to check his current state of happy and he was making his way to the library bag and smiled up at me. By now Zurich was yelling and I knew someone would throw a wounding blow soon. Upstairs I intervened and reminded Olea that the rule was no tv till after homework and certainly no tv during homework.

I headed back downstairs and heard Giddy gagging. I rushed to him to find him in the same place as I'd left him, which is interesting because he drags himself around now. I did a finger swipe of his mouth and didn't feel anything. I could tell something was wrong as I picked him up and took him to the kitchen to wipe his nose. He didn't have a runny nose before and he was still crying in an unfamiliar way. Upon wiping his nose I noticed the mucus was coming from his mouth mostly, at this point I started to get worried. I tried whopping him on the back and that didn't change anything. I swept around in his mouth again. Nothing. More crying and mucus. He still had an airway but he was obviously uncomfortable. I took him upstairs with me to get a bulb syringe... Realized that wasn't of any use and called my mother in law (who is a nurse). She walked me through technique of trying to get it to exit through pushing on his diaphragm and the whomping him on the back. When that didn't produce anything but mucus and crying she told me to calm down and call 911.
I've never dialed 911.
He still had an airway but since I had no idea what he had swallowed I didn't know for how long it would be. He coughed up more mucus and little spots of blood. When I could hear the sirens dispatch hung up with me. By then I had made my way with him to the front porch since Olea and Zurich wanted to go outside. (That's silly isn't it? That while one child is choking I have to still meet the "needs" of the others so I can concentrate on the one...) and I wanted to make sure they were out of the driveway when the ambulance came.

As I sat there with him coughing, gagging and drooling mucus and hanging over my lap on my arm because I felt that was the right position to help him the most, l just prayed. Thankfully as uncomfortable as he was he had had an airway the whole time. Just as the fire truck stopped at the top of our driveway he coughed more and out shot a glob of mucus and in that pile of that m word, was a dark object.

Prayers of thanks.

He coughed twice more whimpered and stopped crying. I cuddled him and looked down to see what it was. A metal star shaped snap clip. When the paramedics made it down the drive I was still shaking and with the relief, crying now. They looked him over blood pressure, pulse and commented on what a pleasant and big boy he was. There was some miscommunication between them and dispatch though because they had another truck and expected to transport. They were told he was blue. I remember her asking me about that and I said he's been breathing the whole time, he's got good color.

That is SO scary. I am so grateful he didn't have to be transported. Grateful that we live as close as we do to the fire station. Grateful for paramedics and firefighters, dispatch. Grateful for nurses, for mother-in laws, for prayer. And for such a pleasant little boy. We have been blessed today and our prayers answered.

After they looked Giddy over and we determined he was fine and didn't need to go to the hospital they invited the two oldest up to look in the truck, sit in it and honk the horn. Cool stuff. The best was Zurich was wearing a pirate costume and towing a light blue rolling suitcase full of toys. (Nev was asleep on the couch in the front room the whole time, that was a blessing too.) Olea was shy at first and didn't want to sit in the driver's seat but I urged her to put aside shyness and take advantage if the cool opportunity. She did.

The offending object as it landed and my happy Giddy all moved on. I do expect him to have a sore throat though.