Best ER trip ever!

RIGHT before I started dinner

RIGHT before Daughter was dropped off from a playdate

THE SAME NIGHT Husband had to work late

Allie came running in screaming, followed by Junior with a panicked look – “Allie put a bead up her nose!”

Sheeet.  I’ve actually never had this happen before.  Is this a 911 worth thing?  Straight to the ER, or do I call the physician’s exchange, because it is 5:05, of course, so the offices are closed.  Even more, where is her doctor’s phone number?  (They’ve been lucky enough to stay with the same pediatrician for most of their lives, so we are keeping them there, rather than switching them to ours.)

Allie was still screaming like a banshee, so I mentally crossed off 911 because at least she was breathing.  I started scrambling through the mess of papers all over the desk, looking for the one that I know has her doc’s phone number on it.  And then Daughter pulls up, so I tried to get her in the house ASAP while still maintaining some realm of politeness:  “Yes, thanks for the playdate.  We’ll have to do it again some time” – Aaron opens the front door to reveal Allie’s screams of pain from in the house while he asks if he should get her a blanket.  I tried to explain the situation, but I bet that mom added me to her list of ‘iffy’ households to not let her daughter go to.

Rushed back in after they leave, decided to search the internet instead and I could not find the right website, even after several minutes of searching different combinations of clinic names and doctor’s names.  Oh my gosh.  It was like I could not function with Allie’s screaming right next to me.  So I decided instead to calm her down, which took some time, but she eventually just cried instead of screaming, with a few whimpers of “Mommy” (she calls me Mommy too sometimes, so I’m really not sure who she was wanting – probably real Mom.)

Eventually, I did find the number, got the nurse on the phone, and like I suspected she said to go to the ER.  Luckily, some wonderful neighbors of ours were very happy to watch our three (I took Aaron with me just to avoid chaos at their house, because they have their own five kids.)

By now, she’s not even crying anymore, so we calmly parked in the garage and meandered over to the ER right about 6:00.  The kids were excited because I told them we might have to eat dinner at the ER (which Aaron kept calling the RE) so they were jabbering about that.

(Funniest part of the night:  I was at the check-in desk and the kids were on the other side of the crowded waiting room.  Aaron yells over to me, “Did we bring the bead?” and without thinking, I called back “Yes, it’s in her nose.”  And that made everyone in the room laugh.  Like I said, Aaron can be a comic relief sometimes.)

We were sitting, waiting to be admitted, when Allie told me she could feel the bead.  I thought she meant way up in her sinus or something, because when I looked at home, I couldn’t see a thing.  She pointed to her nostril instead, and I peeked, and sure enough, I could see it.  I held down the other nostril, had her blow twice, and the bead came right out.  And then they called us to be admitted.

Evening disaster averted!  We strolled out of there at 6:28, went back to get the other kids, who had already even had dinner, and got home well before I expected.  It was almost even a normal bedtime.

And we all learned that important lesson – NOTHING goes in your nose.

I did find out later she put it there to keep it away from Junior.  Logical enough.

I am worried though that this will reflect poorly on me.  I reported the trip to the caseworker even before we left the house, and then let her know how it played out, and she didn’t say anything negative, but was I negligent in letting a 5-year old play with beads?  (To be fair, it was a necklace that Junior made that broke, so it’s not like I left piles of beads sitting around.  And this is a kit designed for ages 5 and up.)  I don’t think so, but the state certainly is more conservative about parenting when it comes to other people’s kids.  I guess I’ll have to wait and see if I get a comeuppance.