Today was the first time since the day I gave birth to Opal, that I was truly worried and scared for her life. The first time, her heart rate was dropping dramatically because she was stuck in my pelvic bones facing the wrong direction for many many hours, leading to an emergency C-section...
This time, because she swallowed an unknown item and began choking.
It was all really strange, and one of those situations that you can literally say, "This could've been prevented if _______". What happened was, I was watching TV with Opal in my lap, and my sister had just gotten home from school. About an hour later, I had the sudden urge to clean the living room. Particularly, vacuuming. So, my sister held on to Opal and I started cleaning. Then, I remembered a bag of confetti had fallen out of my craft box the day before in my room and wanted to vacuum that carpet as well. So I went to my room and was putting Opal's clean clothes away and picking up her toys before vacuuming. Before I got the chance to do so, my sister brought Opal in because she got a bloody nose. So I made sure that there was nothing on the rug she was playing on, and let her play with the toys that were already on the floor. I didn't worry about the confetti, because that had happened on the other side of the room, and I hadn't seen any on that side of my bed.
Well, I turn around to grab a pile of folded laundry, and I hear Opal choking! I turn and pick her up, stuck my finger in her mouth to see if I could pull whatever it was out, but couldn't find anything. Her poor little body was tensing up and trying to throw up whatever foreign object was in her throat, but couldn't. She wasnt able to breathe, because of all of the saliva and gagging that was happening, and was getting really red. I ran out to ask my sister to help me free her passage, and to call 911 after I couldn't find what she swallowed. She was barely breathing for 5 minutes while we waited for the paramedics.
When the firemen got there, they checked her breathing (which about 30 seconds prior to them pulling up she finally started screaming and crying) and said she was okay. The paramedics arrived a minute later, and basically said they couldn't do anything for us. One of them basically told me that Opal would be OK, to nurse her and just watch her. He told me taking her to the ER wasn't necessary.
Something just didn't feel right with her, though.
You know that feeling when you have a popcorn kernel stuck in your throat? Well, it looked like she had that situation going on! She isn't a drooler, (even while teething) but her shirt was becoming drenched in drool. She looked like she was in pain, and her eyes were becoming sunken in. This is when I was beginning to nurse her, and she started choking more!
I stopped nursing her and decided to just take her to the Children's hospital, even if nothing was wrong. I wanted to be SURE that there was nothing blocking her airway. I just could never forgive myself if I brushed it off as easily as a man who didn't even look down her throat, and was there for a total of 3 minutes..
My daughter wasn't fine.
When we got to the ER, they got us in quickly and we saw a DR within minutes of going back. He checked her throat and didn't see anything, and right as he was going to pull away, he saw a flash of red. He had the weirdest and confused expression on his face and said, "She does have something in her throat!" This scared the crap out of me, because of course I wanted to be wrong! I asked if it was big, and he said, "I honestly don't know! It is shiny and red."
That's when I knew it had to be a stray confetti piece!
I told him and he went out quickly after mumbling something about suction and possible operation..
OPERATION?!
Yeah, I almost had a panic attack at that point, luckily my sister reminded me to be brave for Opal. We were then taken back.... to an operating room!!!!! I was becoming a nervous wreck while 5 people were around my poor little baby and trying to get this confetti piece out of her throat! Thankfully, the suction did work, and they got that stupid thing out!
I was cautious before this incident, but I'm definitely paranoid now!!!!!!
I did learn though, to always trust my gut.
If this was about me, I would've taken that paramedic's advice and called myself crazy.. But this wasn't about me. It was about the 8 month old baby that can't explain to us what is going on.
Even if they would've found nothing, I still would've been proud that I got a second opinion.
I'm just so thankful that my babe is once again her happy, healthy little self.
<3
