"Is this the boy with the battery in him?"

On Friday afternoon, 5pm to be exact, Freddie came up to me rubbing his jaw and looking sad. I immediately knew he swallowed something and then I realized it was a battery. I had just bought these submersible led lights and Cedrik had unscrewed one and the batteries were on the floor on their little room. I had noticed them earlier but really didn't think too much of it, neither of them really puts things in their mouths, let alone swallow anything but food.

Anyway, we tried to see if he would throw it up, he didn't. Jordan gave him a blessing, called the battery/poison control number and they told us to get an xray immediately and told us not to try to make him throw it up. Lovely.

We hurried to St Al's in Eagle because the main one was very busy (Jordan had called them on the way). We were almost the only people there and didn't have to wait too long for the xray. Donna came to get Cedrik (very good idea) and he got to have Mexican food and spend the night. He was pretty happy.

A couple of minutes after Cedrik was picked up the Dr came in and said "Is this the boy with the battery in him?" We said "Potentially." He said "oh, no, it's in there." He showed us the xray and it was lodged in the esophagus right by the collar bone.  He said we should try to, well, basically hang him upside down and see if he spits it out while patting his back. This very aloof nurse said this was the poor man's way of getting it out and it works 50% of the time. We let her know that although we were poor we are expensively poor so it probably wasn't going to be that easy for us.

Freddie just wanted to be held, mainly by me and whimpered a lot but didn't cry.

I left the room while they held him upside down and no shock, it didn't work. So he suggested we let him drink some juice and try once more before transferring to have someone remove it. He drank all the juice he was offered and it didn't work again.

There was a Haitian man who was there to start the iv before the transfer and he informed Jordan that in Haiti they would stick a tube down there and just pull it out. I'm glad we are here...maybe, it sounds a lot faster and cheaper. ;)

Since we were transferring to St Luke's and they let us drive him we didn't start the iv there.  It was after 7 and we were starving. We grabbed food quickly and Freddie threw up twice on the way. It was the first, and probably last time in Freddie's life that he didn't beg for food.

At St Luke's we were checked in and sent to a room where another nurse wanted to take his blood pressure etc, even though we told her we were supposed to go directly to pre-op and the Dr was meeting us there. She didn't listen and about 2 minutes later another nurse came in and told us we were going to pre-op.

The Dr met us there and went over everything. He was very kind. He is one of two Dr's that works on kids in the state (a pediatric gastroenterologist?). He seemed confident and calm. They took Freddie in and about an hour later we got to go into recovery. He was so zoned out and even after waking more, he didn't want any juice. He just wanted me to hold him. We waited for awhile and got to go home at about 10:30. The Dr came out after and showed us the battery. It had already started leaking acid and he was really glad we brought him in when we did. It stuck to his throat a little but he said it should heal in a couple days and that he wasn't at all worried. So even with acid in his throat he wasn't even crying!

He was such a trooper and did really well. We were both happy with how nicely we were treated and how well he was taken care of.

Today he is sad and tired. He doesn't want to walk; he only wants to be held. He has drank quite a bit and eaten a little.