Do you sometimes have nightmares about what things could happen to your kids? I do. I get scared that my kids will hit their heads, run into the street, break a limb, etc. I really try not to think about these things, but I feel at times that it makes me a little more of a cautious mom and though I cannot always isolate my children and protect them from all the harms of the world, I do try to at least not do anything that could cause them to be harmed. Well, last Thursday one of my fears came true. My little Xander started choking and we had to call 911. If you want all the gory details then keep on reading. If you don't then skip to the end to see the pictures and be assured that Xander is alright now and back to his spunky, happy self again.
On Thursday morning, Eric got up and took care of the kids while I got to sleep in. Around 8am he came to get me so I could go take care of him and get Tyler ready for school while Eric got ready. Xander was playing on the floor with toys all around him. When he saw me he started whining for me to pick him up. I put him on my lap and he started clapping from being happy to see me. Tyler came over and started playing with him. At some point I thought I saw him chewing on something so I checked his mouth and did a sweep, but did not see anything. I put him on the ground for a moment to go get Liam who was trying to crawl up an object when Xander started coughing. I picked him up and he looked like he was choking. At that moment I let him cough a little to see if he could clear it himself, but he couldn't. Next I lifted up his arms to see if that would help then patted his back. He then started to look like he was really choking so I ran him to our bedroom where Eric was and told him that Xander was choking. He started to get bright red so I turned him over on my knee, kind of upside down, and started to pat his back really hard. Next my worst fear happened. Xander started to turn purple and at one point he started to go a little limp on me. I yelled for Eric to call 911.
I am so glad that I have taken CPR multiple times because I knew what to do and I was preparing for the worst. I was praying so hard for him to start breathing, but he was just trying to cough. Just at the moment that Eric started talking to the someone on the phone, Xander gave out a cry and continued to cough. The color in his face was turning back to red and then pink, but he was still coughing like something was in his airway and he was wheezing a lot. I knew then that he was doing better and we prepared for all the commotion of the firetrucks and ambulances to arrive at our house.
It took about 8 min for the emergency teams to arrive which seemed like a long time. Xander was doing much better, but he was just wheezing a lot. When they arrived, they listened to him and determined that he did sound like something was still in his airway. They gave us the option to drive him to the hospital or take him in the ambulance, but that he really needed to be seen very soon. Of course, we chose the ambulance and I went with Xander on the ride. It's amazing how resilient kids are, but their little bodies cannot handle being in distress for a long time and my worries were that if this object moves and Xander starts choking again, I needed a medical team who can treat him fast. On the way to the hospital we were trying to keep him calm so that he did not start choking again, but at one point he started crying and he was not stopping so the paramedic started getting all her supplies together in case he needed to be intubated. It was scary looking at my poor little child on this bed with oxygen on and this paramedic looking a little worried that he was going to stop breathing. I was praying so hard that he would be alright. Thankfully he kept doing fine.
Well to make the story a little shorter, they did a chest x-ray on Xander and did not see anything. On a side note, I had no idea what Xander could have choked on. I was thinking that it could have been a tissue or paper. The only things that would have showed up on the x-ray would have been something with metal or possibly glass. Everything else is like your skin and the x-ray goes right through it. Xander was still wheezing even after 2 breathing treatments so the ER doctor consulted with the Pediatric ICU doctor and they decided that they need to put a scope or camera down Xander's airway to see if they could determine if he did have something stuck in his airway. The ICU was pretty busy so we had to wait over 2 hours for a room. When we finally arrived in the ICU, we were prepped on the procedure and an hour later Xander was put under anesthesia and they scoped his airway. Eric and I were not able to be present during this procedure due to some policies, but it only took about 1o minutes before the doctor came out to show us the picture of the STICKER that was stuck in Xander's bronchial tube. You could even see the smiling face on the sticker.
How in the world did this kid get a hold of a sticker? Tyler had not been playing with any stickers recently. After discussing this further, we realized that Tyler had put some sparkling stickers on a book and that book was where Xander was playing. Xander must have pulled the sticker off the book and put it in his mouth. Now that we knew what was in his lung, they now needed to get it out and that required having a bronchoscopy. Xander was going to have to go the Operating room where they would put him under anesthesia, stick a big tube down his throat that had a camera in it and find the sticker. When they found it then they put an instrument in that had these tiny clamps on it that would grab the sticker and pull it out. It was a short procedure, and lasted a total of 30 min. After it was done we went into the recovery room and the nurse was trying to control Xander who was trying to wake up and squirming all over the place. He looked like a really drunk baby. He was also starving. We waited a while for each procedure that entire day. Xander choked around 8:30 am, We were in the ER until about 1pm. He had the first procedure to find the sticker at around 2pm and he had the bronchoscopy at around 6:30pm. Xander had not eaten since 7:15 am. When we were finally able to given him a bottle of glucose water, he scarfed it down in about 2 minutes. He immediately then started to wake up and even smiled at the nurses. The poor guy just needed to eat. So he got 2 more bottles of food later and we were discharged from the hospital at around 9:30 pm. Xander came out of this all with bruised arms from the IVs, a hoarse voice, and pretty little ladybug sticker in a cup. Eric and I were just so glad that the day was over and we could not wait to jump into bed.
I want to just say that I feel so blessed for the knowledge that I have about CPR and that I actually listened in my classes. I am also thankful for the power of prayer and for the gift of the Holy Ghost who I know was comforting me during this whole ordeal. I know that Xander was being watched over and that the hands and minds of the doctors were being blessed. What I did not say earlier was that after we got to the ER, I felt a very comforting feeling that Xander was going to be alright and even when they were performing the procedures, that I still felt very calm and comforted. I love my little Xander so much and this incident made me love my children even more. Did I mention that we banned stickers from the house?
Little Xander after his first procedure where they saw the sticker.
This is the picture of the sticker stuck in his airway. the white, red, and blue spot are all the sticker. You can't see it here, but there is a yellow smiley face on the right side of the sticker. He was very lucky that the sticker was lining the airway because there was still some air able to come through it.
This is the lovely book that Xander took the sticker off of. Tyler must have gotten it from the bookcase and was reading it to them at some point.
This is the ladybug sticker they retrieved from Xander on a note pad.
On Thursday morning, Eric got up and took care of the kids while I got to sleep in. Around 8am he came to get me so I could go take care of him and get Tyler ready for school while Eric got ready. Xander was playing on the floor with toys all around him. When he saw me he started whining for me to pick him up. I put him on my lap and he started clapping from being happy to see me. Tyler came over and started playing with him. At some point I thought I saw him chewing on something so I checked his mouth and did a sweep, but did not see anything. I put him on the ground for a moment to go get Liam who was trying to crawl up an object when Xander started coughing. I picked him up and he looked like he was choking. At that moment I let him cough a little to see if he could clear it himself, but he couldn't. Next I lifted up his arms to see if that would help then patted his back. He then started to look like he was really choking so I ran him to our bedroom where Eric was and told him that Xander was choking. He started to get bright red so I turned him over on my knee, kind of upside down, and started to pat his back really hard. Next my worst fear happened. Xander started to turn purple and at one point he started to go a little limp on me. I yelled for Eric to call 911.
I am so glad that I have taken CPR multiple times because I knew what to do and I was preparing for the worst. I was praying so hard for him to start breathing, but he was just trying to cough. Just at the moment that Eric started talking to the someone on the phone, Xander gave out a cry and continued to cough. The color in his face was turning back to red and then pink, but he was still coughing like something was in his airway and he was wheezing a lot. I knew then that he was doing better and we prepared for all the commotion of the firetrucks and ambulances to arrive at our house.
It took about 8 min for the emergency teams to arrive which seemed like a long time. Xander was doing much better, but he was just wheezing a lot. When they arrived, they listened to him and determined that he did sound like something was still in his airway. They gave us the option to drive him to the hospital or take him in the ambulance, but that he really needed to be seen very soon. Of course, we chose the ambulance and I went with Xander on the ride. It's amazing how resilient kids are, but their little bodies cannot handle being in distress for a long time and my worries were that if this object moves and Xander starts choking again, I needed a medical team who can treat him fast. On the way to the hospital we were trying to keep him calm so that he did not start choking again, but at one point he started crying and he was not stopping so the paramedic started getting all her supplies together in case he needed to be intubated. It was scary looking at my poor little child on this bed with oxygen on and this paramedic looking a little worried that he was going to stop breathing. I was praying so hard that he would be alright. Thankfully he kept doing fine.
Well to make the story a little shorter, they did a chest x-ray on Xander and did not see anything. On a side note, I had no idea what Xander could have choked on. I was thinking that it could have been a tissue or paper. The only things that would have showed up on the x-ray would have been something with metal or possibly glass. Everything else is like your skin and the x-ray goes right through it. Xander was still wheezing even after 2 breathing treatments so the ER doctor consulted with the Pediatric ICU doctor and they decided that they need to put a scope or camera down Xander's airway to see if they could determine if he did have something stuck in his airway. The ICU was pretty busy so we had to wait over 2 hours for a room. When we finally arrived in the ICU, we were prepped on the procedure and an hour later Xander was put under anesthesia and they scoped his airway. Eric and I were not able to be present during this procedure due to some policies, but it only took about 1o minutes before the doctor came out to show us the picture of the STICKER that was stuck in Xander's bronchial tube. You could even see the smiling face on the sticker.
How in the world did this kid get a hold of a sticker? Tyler had not been playing with any stickers recently. After discussing this further, we realized that Tyler had put some sparkling stickers on a book and that book was where Xander was playing. Xander must have pulled the sticker off the book and put it in his mouth. Now that we knew what was in his lung, they now needed to get it out and that required having a bronchoscopy. Xander was going to have to go the Operating room where they would put him under anesthesia, stick a big tube down his throat that had a camera in it and find the sticker. When they found it then they put an instrument in that had these tiny clamps on it that would grab the sticker and pull it out. It was a short procedure, and lasted a total of 30 min. After it was done we went into the recovery room and the nurse was trying to control Xander who was trying to wake up and squirming all over the place. He looked like a really drunk baby. He was also starving. We waited a while for each procedure that entire day. Xander choked around 8:30 am, We were in the ER until about 1pm. He had the first procedure to find the sticker at around 2pm and he had the bronchoscopy at around 6:30pm. Xander had not eaten since 7:15 am. When we were finally able to given him a bottle of glucose water, he scarfed it down in about 2 minutes. He immediately then started to wake up and even smiled at the nurses. The poor guy just needed to eat. So he got 2 more bottles of food later and we were discharged from the hospital at around 9:30 pm. Xander came out of this all with bruised arms from the IVs, a hoarse voice, and pretty little ladybug sticker in a cup. Eric and I were just so glad that the day was over and we could not wait to jump into bed.
I want to just say that I feel so blessed for the knowledge that I have about CPR and that I actually listened in my classes. I am also thankful for the power of prayer and for the gift of the Holy Ghost who I know was comforting me during this whole ordeal. I know that Xander was being watched over and that the hands and minds of the doctors were being blessed. What I did not say earlier was that after we got to the ER, I felt a very comforting feeling that Xander was going to be alright and even when they were performing the procedures, that I still felt very calm and comforted. I love my little Xander so much and this incident made me love my children even more. Did I mention that we banned stickers from the house?
Little Xander after his first procedure where they saw the sticker.
This is the picture of the sticker stuck in his airway. the white, red, and blue spot are all the sticker. You can't see it here, but there is a yellow smiley face on the right side of the sticker. He was very lucky that the sticker was lining the airway because there was still some air able to come through it.
This is the lovely book that Xander took the sticker off of. Tyler must have gotten it from the bookcase and was reading it to them at some point.
This is the ladybug sticker they retrieved from Xander on a note pad.
