One day, things were going as normal. I was making dinner and Bentley was playing around me. I looked over to see that she had grabbed this little shelf that we had taken to the store the previous day to make sure we got the right screws to hang it. It's a little "Ribba" shelf from IKEA that I wanted to put in Bentley's room to store her books. Without realizing Jeff had actually put the screws in it, I figured she was fine and continued with dinner. Soon after, Bentley came over to me crying and pointing at her mouth. Immediately I saw that she was choking on something and looked in her throat. Right at the back, was a 1.5" pointy screw. I panicked and put my fingers down her throat, trying to grab it. I was too late! I knew she was just trying to clear her throat and it didn't take her long to swallow it down. I was shocked to see that after she swallowed it she acted completely normal, like nothing had happened at all and continued on playing. I, however, was not so calm and didn't exactly know what to do first. I knew I should take her in to the hospital and get that thing out right away! I didn't know what kind of damage it could do to her insides. I called Jeff at work and unfortunately he was in a meeting so I decided not to interrupt him...although I probably could have! Then I called my mom and told her what happened as I sobbed the whole time on the phone. She called Jocelyn, and then called me back telling me I should take her in. Jeff finally called me back and we decided to meet at the Urgent Care in the South Health Centre. Looking back, I wish I would've taken her to the Children's Hospital, but we didn't know how slow it was going to be! I was so careful with Bentley when I put her in the van and I kept looking back at her to make sure she was okay. I couldn't believe the screw didn't seem to affect her at all! We met up with Jeff and proceeded to wait in a line for an hour. I was panicking the whole time thinking how far the screw was going while we waited in a line. After talking to the nurse we waited another 45 minutes until we got a room. Then we waited another half hour until a nurse came. Then we had to wait another half hour for the actual doctor to come. I was getting a little tired of repeating the details of what happened to each person! Bentley was getting hungry at this point and freaking out, but they told us not to feed her anything. They also didn't want her to leave the room. It was such a long wait and I felt so bad for Bentley...and ourselves. We were starving too! Anyways, finally we got her in for an x-ray...then waited again. Bentley was all out losing it, so finally a nurse came and decided it was okay for her to drink some juice. Then finally the doctor came to tell us the news. The screw had traveled through her stomach and was already into her bowels. So the idea of doing a scope (putting a camera down her throat and fishing the screw out) was no longer an option. At that point I was so mad because I wondered if they had paid more attention to us sooner that they could've got the thing out! Anyways, all we could do at that point was wait for her to poop it out. We were so frustrated as we went home, but had no choice but to wait. We ate the dinner I had been making and it tasted SO good!! It was 9pm at that point and we hadn't eaten anything since lunch. Bentley was allowed to eat as well, although I was super nervous feeding her. I put her to bed and didn't sleep a wink that night. The next day I had to pay attention to any bleeding or lumps in her stomach and I dug through her poop at every diaper change, hoping to find the screw! It didn't come out until the last diaper of the night before bed. Oh, how glorious to find the screw!!! I was overjoyed!! I kept it in a little baggy, knowing this would make a great keepsake. I was still worried it might have done something to her insides, but the doctor said she was just fine. Our bodies sure are amazing!
Anyways, I definitely felt like a bad mom that day. There's been a lot of jokes about Bentley eating nuts and bolts, etc. I'm just happy we got through it, and Bentley was as happy as could be the whole time. My crazy girl!!
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