Noah vs. the Peanut....

Things are usually pretty calm, ok maybe calm is a poor choice of words, let's say uneventful, in the Richardson household, but last week was an exception. Last Wednesday evening, Tyler and I went to run an errand and came home to find 3 firetrucks in our cul-de-sac. Heart pounding, I jumped out of the car to ask my neighbors (who were standing in our yard) what was going on. Some workers trying to repair a telephone line had cut through a gas line, but they thought they had everything under control. Able to breathe again, I went into the house (which smelled like gas) where Aaron, the other kids, and my parents were eating pizza getting ready to go to the Wake basketball game. Within a few minutes, the fireman told us that it wasn't as under control as they had thought and that we should evacuate the house (but we couldn't start our cars!) We managed to get both cars pushed to the top of the street where it was safe to start them and went to the game. Before we even arrived at the game, the firemen gave the all clear, so by the time we got home, all was well.

Fast forward to Friday...

Noah is an eater. He eats anything and everything and particularly loves to put things he shouldn't in his mouth. On Friday, he got some peanuts that were in Aaron's office and got in trouble. He started to choke and Aaron patted him on the back, which cleared his airway, but he continued a very distressed cough and cry. Now, I'm on my third child and I've learned not to take the kids to the doctor for every little cough, but mommy instincts kicked in this case and I called right away. The doctor's office was closing at 1:30 that day for a Christmas party, but they squeezed us in at 11.

The doctor listened to Noah's chest for a VERY long time and decided something didn't quite sound right, so he sent us to the hospital for x-rays. The x-rays showed air trapping, which is consistent with foreign object aspiration, in his right lung ( I learned while we were there that this is where peanuts usually go...who knew?) The doctor at the hospital said we needed to do a bronchoscopy to check things out/remove the peanut if it was still there. Sometime, between the x-ray and the surgery, Noah apparently cleared the peanut on his own, but they were able to see a bloody spot and lots of mucous where the peanut had been. They gave him steroids to help heal it, but wanted to keep him overnight for observation in case they had missed something. If particles of the peanut had remained in the lungs, the risk for pneumonia is quite high, so they counseled us to keep a close eye on Noah for the next week or two for any signs of that.

The scariest part of the whole thing to me was that Noah had a bad reaction called "delirium" to the anesthesia. As he was waking up, he screamed and flailed and punched and and hit at Aaron and me, not making any eye contact with us at all. They gave him some medicine to counteract that he slept from then (about 3pm) through the rest of the night at the hospital (at least SOMEBODY got some sleep there!) :) He was a little woozy for the rest of the weekend, but by Monday, he was back to his wild and crazy self and shows no signs of being worse for the wear. I am thankful for our doctor and the staff at Brenner Children's Hospital for taking such good care of our little munchkin.

I am also thankful for our normally uneventful weeks and pray they continue to be the norm!