For Penny's Sake

Logan swallowed a penny about a week ago. What a bad Mom I am! I don't know how he got two pennies in his mouth, but he did and when I tried to get them out he arched his back and resisted so much that one of them went right down his throat. I thought it would just pass through, but for the next day or two he gagged and coughed and sometimes threw up his solid foods. One time he started crying and wouldn't eat anymore even though I knew he was hungry. Poor chubby Logan was living off of nursing and applesauce. So we got an appointment with Logan's pediatrician, Dr. Lauret, and he brought out a cool metal detector wand like policemen have. Sure enough it beeped right at shoulder level. Dr. Lauret couldn't see the penny down Logan's throat, and I was a little worried that he would just tell me it wold pass on its own. But he said, "We're going to get that penny out." So he sent me to the hospital and we got x-rays that they let me keep- that was cool. Then we spent a long time waiting to see Dr. Parsons, the ear nose throat doctor and the really bad part was that they didn't want me to feed Logan anything just in case they decided to put him under right then. Dr. Parsons recorded me saying some stuff into his little microphone about Logan gagging, and then he decided that the next morning would be the best time to take the penny out. Then he said that Logan should spend the night in the hospital so they could be sure the penny didn't come loose and block his airway. Are you kidding? I wasn't ready to spend the night at the hospital after 3 hours in docotor's offices trying to keep hungry Logan from fussing while filling out pages and pages of billing information. Talk about a nightmare, but we finally got to go home.
When we came back the next morning at 6:00, the experience was much better. Pete came with us, and Grandpa Webb visited a little later. In Logan's room there were cute little baby hospital clothes layed out on the bed with a toy car for him to take home along with booties, and a sippy cup that they filled with apple juice. Logan sat on the big hospital bed with his hospital garb holding the remote that the sound came out of, and watching TV all grown-up like. It was so cute I really wished I had my camera, and all the nurses kept stopping to adore him. He was not scared at all to leave with the nurse for his "surgery." When he came back he was a little wobbly and fussy, so he wouldn't sit in the bed anymore, but Grandpa Webb still got some pictures on his cell phone for us. The nurses brought in pudding for his sore throat, and Dr. Parsons came in with the shiny 2007 penny in a biohazard bag, telling us to "put that in his keepsakes." Dr. Parsons told us everything went well, and it didn't tear the esophagus, which would be really serious, but the penny was wedged in there pretty good, and a little lower than what he usually sees. After a couple hours Logan was back to his happy self, eating anything he could get his hands on. Logan ended up having one grand adventure all for the sake of a penny.