Grete the day before she swallowed a button battery
( This is a picture of Grete's esophagus. The top left shows the battery, top right are the pinchers removing the battery, bottom left is her stomach (no damage) bottom right is where the battery burned her esophagus. )
Grete was on a liquid diet for a few days, which she hated and now she’s back to most solids as long as they are cut super small. She goes back to Children’s in August to have a repeat procedure done. They will put her under and stick a camera down her throat to check for any scarring. If her esophagus has tightened, they will need to re-stretch it. Otherwise, she is doing great and I just thank God every day that it wasn’t any worse.
So far to date, this little mis-adventure has cost $34,000. All I have to say is thank goodness for health insurance!!
I've been meaning to write on here, but once again time has gotten away from me. I'm sure all of you have heard about Grete's little misadventure with a button battery. Our little girl has a bad habit of shoving things in her mouth. On Father's day, I caught her with a penny and a nickel in her mouth. She spit them out but part of me had a feeling that she had swallowed one. She was doing just fine on Sunday and then Monday came along. I had Oscar all day and in the morning, I caught the kids again with change. RJ loves money and is always looking for some, be it my purse, the piggy bank, or the couch. I took that away from them and put it away. After awhile, I noticed Grete wasn't feeling too well. She kept drinking, but every time she'd eat, she'd throw her food up. I put her down for a nap and she slept most of the afternoon. I figured she was not feeling good because I was on heavy antibiotics and the little stinker would not stop nursing. I just thought maybe she was having a sour tummy because of the breastmilk. I went to work around 4 and came home around 7pm. Mark gave the kids a bath and Grete seemed to perk up after her bath. We tried feeding her again and she quickly went downhill. I decide to take her to the ER because I had a feeling she had something caught in her throat.
At the ER they did a chest X-ray and sure enough, she had what we thought was a penny or dime caught in her esophagus. Unfortunately, our little hospital is not equipped for getting these kinds of things out and after an hour of phone calls, we learned that Duluth wasn't either. They decided to airlift her to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis.
Around 12:30am, the chopper arrived to pick up our little girl. By some miracle, I was able to ride with her to the cities. Usually that doesn’t happen. We had to stop in Hibbing to refuel and by 3:10am we were in the ER at Children’s. Since we thought it was a penny stuck they weren’t as concerned about getting her into surgery right away. Her vitals were stable but she was so lethargic. It took 5 tries to get an I.V into her little hand. That was not fun at all. She was dehydrated so her veins kept collapsing.
7:30 rolls around and we learn that surgery could be 9am or 12:30pm. Luckily there was a cancellation and she was able to get in at 9am. Surgery went well, It took about an hour from the time they put her under to her waking up. Unfortunately, we learned soon after that she had swallowed a button battery and it had caused some damage to her esophagus. We had no idea where she could have gotten a button battery but the doctor was a bit irritated to learn that we had been at the hospital since 3am and they waited until 9 to do surgery. They would have done emergency surgery as soon as she had gotten there if they would have known it was a battery. After another x-ray test, we learned that the battery acid hadn’t burned thru her esophagus. Thank goodness for that! We did have to stay overnight with her in the hospital for observation, but she did great and we were able to leave the next morning.
At the ER they did a chest X-ray and sure enough, she had what we thought was a penny or dime caught in her esophagus. Unfortunately, our little hospital is not equipped for getting these kinds of things out and after an hour of phone calls, we learned that Duluth wasn't either. They decided to airlift her to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis.
Around 12:30am, the chopper arrived to pick up our little girl. By some miracle, I was able to ride with her to the cities. Usually that doesn’t happen. We had to stop in Hibbing to refuel and by 3:10am we were in the ER at Children’s. Since we thought it was a penny stuck they weren’t as concerned about getting her into surgery right away. Her vitals were stable but she was so lethargic. It took 5 tries to get an I.V into her little hand. That was not fun at all. She was dehydrated so her veins kept collapsing.
7:30 rolls around and we learn that surgery could be 9am or 12:30pm. Luckily there was a cancellation and she was able to get in at 9am. Surgery went well, It took about an hour from the time they put her under to her waking up. Unfortunately, we learned soon after that she had swallowed a button battery and it had caused some damage to her esophagus. We had no idea where she could have gotten a button battery but the doctor was a bit irritated to learn that we had been at the hospital since 3am and they waited until 9 to do surgery. They would have done emergency surgery as soon as she had gotten there if they would have known it was a battery. After another x-ray test, we learned that the battery acid hadn’t burned thru her esophagus. Thank goodness for that! We did have to stay overnight with her in the hospital for observation, but she did great and we were able to leave the next morning.
( This is a picture of Grete's esophagus. The top left shows the battery, top right are the pinchers removing the battery, bottom left is her stomach (no damage) bottom right is where the battery burned her esophagus. )
Grete was on a liquid diet for a few days, which she hated and now she’s back to most solids as long as they are cut super small. She goes back to Children’s in August to have a repeat procedure done. They will put her under and stick a camera down her throat to check for any scarring. If her esophagus has tightened, they will need to re-stretch it. Otherwise, she is doing great and I just thank God every day that it wasn’t any worse.
So far to date, this little mis-adventure has cost $34,000. All I have to say is thank goodness for health insurance!!
Grete a day after arriving home from her little ordeal.
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