The last four days have been a whirlwind. It started with the latin Easter Vigil mass on Saturday night.  Something I recommend everyone attend at least once.  It is stunningly beautiful, mostly done by candle light.  Ours included a baptism and was four hours long. We didn’t get home till 2 am on Sunday morning.  Just in time for the clock to jump ahead to 3 am. We barely had energy to play Easter bunny for our kids.

Easter eggs were found amidst snow flurries, the Easter BBQ more memorable for the fire keeping us warm than the fantastic friends & foods (though they were fantastic & delicious).  Sunday night Dane’s legs grew all night.  Monday night Dane’s tummy hurt.  His tummy really hurt, and it confused me.  After much prodding he finally confessed he swallowed a quarter.

Panicked I googled, and found most coins come right out the natural way.  I laid back down with him in my arms, tucked in between me & Dave, and tried to sleep.  Poor Dane’s tummy really hurt the whole night. I called our doctor first thing.  We were immediately sent to the ER.  The pain Dane was having was not common. The ER doc agreed, and we went for x-rays within 15 minutes.  Fifteen minutes after that Dane was admitted and scheduled for an endoscopy that afternoon.  Neither Dane nor I had eaten yet.

Dane had an allergic reaction to anesthesia last time, so extra caution was taken. I got to stay with Dane during the whole ride (laying in his bed!) from his room, down to the operating room. He very much enjoyed being hooked up to all the machines (not the IV, of course) and happily played with holding his breath & coughing and watching the effect on the big screens surrounding his gurney. He earnestly explained to the doctor that he wasn’t sleepy.  He didn’t take naps anymore.  Still, the doctor asked him to breath in the mask, just like a fighter pilot, while the nurse shot medicine in his IV port. Dane fought bravely, but finally, with a big yawn, he fell right asleep and I was kicked out of the OR.

Just before I left, I watched them choose a tube to send down his throat.  They measured the width needed against the width of his pinky.  I assume that correlates to the size of his esophagus, as your fist does to your stomach.  I remembered this when the doctor came to find me 10 minutes later, with a nickel not a quarter, and I wondered how something so big could fit down something so small.  I also thanked God it had gone down and not stuck in his throat.

It took Dane two hours to wake up from the anesthesia. I think the three nights with little sleep had something to do with this.  When he did wake up, he thought it was morning, that he’d slept the night through.  When the sun went down half an hour later he was very confused at the short “day”.  Thankfully he continued to improve, even eating jello without choking or vomiting, no signs of allergic reaction. By 9 pm he was doing so well, they decided to discharge us and we very, very happily went home.

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