What if

If I gather all the “what ifs” I’ve had in a lifetime, it would still fall short of our latest ordeal. It was 2:15 on a normal Tuesday at work. I had just got back to the office after completing some errands, when I got the call. It was my mom. I answered, ‘What’s up?’ “Um, I’ve got a problem here. Gavin swallowed something. I don’t know what it was…something about vomiting…still crying …What should I do?” ‘I’ll be right there.’ After informing my boss that there was an emergency, I jumped in the car and drove home (a whole 2 blocks from work). When I arrived, Gavin was breathing, but swallowing funny and crying when he did. Something wasn’t right. I threw (almost literally) Gavin into the car and raced to the E.R. The whole drive I was doing the whiplash thing to be sure that he was still breathing. Upon arrival at the hospital, the staff seemed almost lackadaisical and asked me to have a seat in the waiting room. After what seemed like an eternity, we were back in the E.R. When the doctor arrived, he too seemed lackadaisical. He said he was going to “assume” that there was a foreign body in him and that he would take an x-ray as a precautionary measure. I said, ‘You don’t understand. He is swallowing funny and he cries every time he swallows. That’s not normal.” To which the doctor said, “No! Really? I didn’t hear him. I’d cry too if someone made me throw up.” UNBELIEVEABLE! He walked out and said he would send someone from x-ray to get the scan. Not 20 seconds after he walked away, Gavin started vomiting white foamy, aerated saliva. This is not good. I know this means his airway is compromised. The woman from X-ray shows up, takes the x-ray, and leaves. Gavin stops vomiting. Shortly after that, the doctor shows up with a completely different attitude. There is something lodged in his throat and it is metallic. We are going to have to sedate him and try and get it out. First, they put IVs in both his feet, which was no easy process. (They poked him 5 times before a successful hit). Then they began the retrieval process. This process involves sticking a tube down his throat (around the object), puffing up the bottom of the tube, and gently pulling the tube back out of his throat. They tried this procedure twice, but were unsuccessful. In fact, the procedure caused the object to flip, blocking his airway. At this point his larynx began spasming and his throat was shutting. About 20 people rushed into the room and the doctor was forced to intubate him (put a tube down his throat which connects to a ventilator and breathes for him). During this time Gavin’s respiratory rate dropped to zero and his SpO2 (oxygen levels) dropped to 35. Gavin turned an unearthly shade of blue. I will spare you the rest of the gory details. The first try at intubation was unsuccessful. The second try was successful, but now Gavin was on a ventilator and not breathing on his own. At this point, Gavin was stable, but needed to be transported to Doernbecher Hospital in Portland. The Panda team came down, from Portland, and got Gavin. Shortly after arrival in Portland, they were able to remove the ventilator. While this was good, this still left the unanswered question of, “What do we do with the object?” The next 20 hours, or so, were spent on a teeter totter. Gavin was doing well, but the doctors could not decide what to do with the object, which was now in his stomach. Part of the indecision came from the fact that we were unsure what the object was. If it was a lithium battery, it needed to come out immediately. If it was two magnets, it needed to come out. It could pass through naturally if it was a coin or a solitary magnet, but only if it was less than 2.5 cm. Not only were we toggling action, the doctors were not on the same page. Within 5 minutes, we received explanations of three different plans from three different physicians. Finally, on the third conversation, Aric politely told them to go have a meeting and come back with a consensus. We were at our limit emotionally and physically. After they conversed, the decision was, finally, made to remove the object. Once again, Gavin had to be sedated and intubated. Within an hour though, we finally had some peace of mind. The final verdict was that Gavin had swallowed a magnet. It was however, stuck at the top of the duodenum and would have had to be removed later, if not then. Of course, one week later, Gavin is no worse for the wear. Mommy and Daddy, on the other hand, have a bumpy road ahead of them. When we brought Gavin home, I went straight to his baby book and added his $30,000 magnet with the following caption: “If you ever wonder why we did not start a college fund, this is it.” We jest, but we will see where this journey takes us.