The $60 Penny

This weekend was a crazy one for the Gold family. Carson loves money and knows he can find some change in my wallet. Thursday night, he had some change that he was playing with. He was quietly putting it in his shovel and moving it from container to container while we watched The Prestige (GREAT MOVIE!!). All of the sudden Jordan picked Carson up and ran to the garbage can. He was trying to gag him because he saw him put a penny in his mouth and start to swallow it. He couldn't make Carson spit it up. I called everyone about whether or not I should take him in to the ER. Our deductible for the ER is $300 for single coverage (Jordan) or $600 for Carson or me. Since I'm leaving the Gap in August while I student teach, we have been pinching pennies for the last few months trying to build up our savings. Needless to say we did not want to fork over $600 for the ER if we didn't have to. After calling both of our moms and my stepsister who works in the ER, we decided to wait it out. Carson was his normal self right after the incident, so we weren't too concerned. My dad and I Googled swallowing a penny and read about a study they did at Duke. They found that if kids swallowed a penny minted after a certain date (I think it was like 1982), they ran a risk of developing stomach ulcers if the penny was in their belly for two days. That is because after this date pennies were made mostly of zinc rather than copper. Pennies minted before this day were not harmful. When I read that I thought okay seriously if I knew when the stinking penny was minted, do you think Carson would have been able to swallow it?? ANYWAY, about 24 hours later Carson started to run a fever of 103. This is the worst part of being a parent!! I HATE seeing Carson sick and knowing I cannot do anything about it but give medicine and wait. To top it off, I had to go to work with him crying for me. I always wanted my mommy when I was sick. Jordan took Carson to the doctor Saturday. (I LOVE that our doctor is like the only doctor open for a few hours on Saturday!!) The other doctor in the office was on call. I don't care for him as much as I do Dr. Kenawy. Anyway, Jordan said he walked in and said, "So Carson has a swollen penis." I think I would've died laughing if I was Jordan (good thing I was at work). If I was the doctor I would've been so mortified. Jordan corrected him and told him he swallowed a penny. How funny! The doctor went on to say that the fever was not related to the penny because he swallowed it a day ago. He said the effects would have been within the first few hours. He did order x-rays though. I ended up leaving work early because it was dead and I wanted to be with Carson. We went home and tried to make an appointment at the Diagnostic Center, but they were only open Monday-Friday. We decided to wait it out some more. After checking diapers for a penny without any luck, we decided to take him into Sea Wind as soon as they open on Sunday. I LOVE Sea Wind. They are always so nice and it is very clean there. Dr. England was on duty. He is AMAZING!! He really sat down and talked with us and seemed concerned. After checking vitals, they wanted to do an x-ray. I thought it was going to cost a lot for the x-ray. When the lady said $30, I was so relieved!! The nurse gave us a children's hospital gown for Carson. The moment Jordan put it on him, I was so glad my camera happened to be in my purse!! It was definitely a Kodak moment!!

The pictures aren't the best quality because I was snapping them as fast as I could because I didn't want the staff to walk in while I was doing it. (I know, I'm psycho.) Anyway, there was no penny in the x-ray so we must've just missed it coming out in the diaper. It took the whole weekend and $60 to get this situation under control, but I'm grateful for the outcome. Carson definitely takes after his daddy, always getting into something!