A penny for your thoughts...

...not for your digestion.

So the emergency room visit... I'm not sure that it really makes a great blog story, but it does make me laugh....or roll my eyes. And it really ought to be documented.

A whole series of events led our move to be way off schedule, but we were hungry and thought we could use the break. We stopped at Chipotle for dinner where both of the older two crazies found a penny on the ground. Lucky day? Not so much.

We were in the parking lot when Reid started gagging, followed by bloody drool. In a barely audible voice, he lets me know he swallowed his penny. He is in pain. But the Heimlich is not really recommended when he's still breathing. So annoyed, I loaded him and Gray in the car. Spencer took Parker with him in the moving van so I didn't have to take all the kids and Spencer could get some more moving done. Reid, Grayden and I hustled to the emergency room.

The whole time I was driving I heard moans of pains and strange breathing patterns from the crazy in the back seat who swallowed his penny. But that was always better than silence. Whenever he got quiet, I'd yell at him to tell me he was still breathing. "Are you breathing Reid? Say yes!" We got to the ER. Reid was in too much pain to function. The stroller was not in the back because I had had boxes in there. I carried Reid and dragged Gray by the arm.

Though I wasn't frantic, I was in a hurry. I felt like we caused quite a scene as I rushed in with a wailing, slobbering three year old. A lady who worked there was getting all our info.

Her: Has he ever had surgery before?

Me: Yes, twice.

Her: What for?

Me: Uh, well, once for swallowing something...

Yeah...that's embarrassing. He swallowed a straight pin once and had to get it surgically removed. Reid is my kid who has a problem with this kind of thing. (See here and here.) He's the only one who's required strange ER visits.

So she finished getting all our info and Reid was making really strange noises...I knew what was coming but couldn't act fast enough. Reid barfed. Everywhere. On me, on himself, on Grayden, on the floor, on the wall, on the chair, on the desk. The lady who worked there was quick. She said she'd seen it before. I'm pretty sure he missed her. Vomit shot out of his mouth like nothing I'd ever seen.

The penny landed in my shoe.

Somebody brought us a couple towels and told us to leave the mess....they'd call maintenance.

Spencer and Parker walked in. I had all the keys...to both the house and the apartment.

After the major scene we had caused, all five of us calmly walked out of the emergency room like nothing had ever happened. Only the horrid smell of throw-up remained. The lovely lady at the desk just deleted all the info she entered. Two minutes later, that would have been $100 vomit. Nice timing on that one Reid.

Only...it was really bad timing. This put us another hour behind schedule.