Everyday I thank my lucky stars that my husband and I have a perfect little peanut. Blessed is an understatement. I also thank my lucky stars that we live in Canada and have access to amazing medical professionals and facilities. From a 2 cell embryo in a petri dish to her early days in the NICU, Peanut has had amazing doctors and nurses looking after her. A week and a half ago we found ourselves relying yet again on the medical system after Peanut inhaled some food at a family BBQ.
Peanut has been eating solids since she was 6 months old and is quite used to moving food around her mouth. She occasionally gags on items but is always able to bring them back up herself and carries on eating as if nothing happened. Last weekend we were at a family BBQ when she gagged, brought it back up but inhaled deeply because she was scared/unhappy and wanted to let out a cry. She started coughing immediately. We knew she didn't have anything blocking her airway because she never lost consciousness, never turned blue/red/purple, never stopped breathing or never stopped making noise. After about a minute I took her to a quiet place to get her to calm down and at this point she was screaming and coughing as well as gagged every 30 seconds for about 4-5 minutes. She eventually calmed down and wanted down on the floor to play with her cousin. My sister-in-law noticed immediately that Peanut was wheezing constantly and coughing every time she moved her upper body. This didn't seem to bother Peanut at all which made me brush off the severity of the situation. I figured if it were serious she would be crying and acting uncomfortable and not playing and giggling with her cousin. My husband and I weren't concerned, however a few of our family members were. To humour them I called my friend Jenny who is a Paramedic. Jenny happened to be working so she had access to the opinions of other Paramedics. The consensus at the station was that we needed to take Peanut to the ER immediately to get things checked out. My husband and I agreed that it was better to be safe then sorry. We honestly were thinking it was a big old waste of time but we heading out to the hospital. After an inconclusive chest x-ray (warning: baby chest x-rays are scary as shit), a check over by and ER nurse, ER doctor and a Pediatrician, a phone call was made to a team of ENT's (Ear, Nose and Throat Doctors) at Sick Kid's in Toronto where Peanuts case was presented. It was decided that Peanut needed to be transported to Sick Kid's via ambulance immediately. After 12 hours of monitoring at Sick Kid's Peanuts left lung was getting much worse and was struggling to take in air so they booked Peanut into the OR immediately and we headed down for a direct laryngoscopy and a rigid bronchoscopy which took 3 times as long as the surgeon thought it would. After 1.5 hrs (which felt like 17 hours) the surgeon met us in the waiting room to told us Peanut handled the procedures well and he was able to retrieved three small pieces of meat from her lower left lung (see picture below). The reason it took so long was because the pieces were so small and so far down in her lung that he has a difficult time locating them. Peanut handled the entire 'adventure' like a champion and chatted, smiled and waved through most of our time at the hospital. One and a half weeks later we got the all clear from our Doctor and both lungs are in perfect working condition again. Phew! I have to admit, this experience brought back a lot of unwanted memories from our days in the NICU when Peanut was first born. Yuck! Lets hope our wee-one won't have anymore reasons to have another medical team looking after her. So glad to have it all behind us.
Life Lessons:
1. We are so lucky to have highly trained specialists available to us!!
2. If a child is choking or coughing do not pat their back while they are upright. This can make it much worse.
3. When in doubt go to the hospital
4. Wheezing/congestion of the chest after a choking episode is a sure sign of pulmonary aspiration
5. Make friends with an amazing Paramedic! (THANK YOU JENNY!)
6. It is physically possible to stay up for 56 hours straight
7. I would do anything for my baby
8. We have some incredible friends and family! Thank you for the help & support when we needed it the most.
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| Food removed from left lung |
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| Thank you Sick Kid's! |
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| My bed |
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| My Babe |
