Sunday, June 25th, 2006. Where do we start, with Amy's sister's heart attack last night or with Ben's trip to the emergency room this morning?  Let's go with the big one, Sherri's heart attack.  Jesse and I were playing XBox late last night when we got the call that his mom was on the way to the hospital in an ambulance.  She had a heart attack and underwent surgery to install a stint repairing a 99% blockage.  We got the news around 2am that she was out of surgery and doing well.  Amy and Jesse left late this morning and arrived in Petersburg around three this afternoon.  Sherri is doing fine and has transferred from ICU to a regular room.  With luck she'll be released tomorrow afternoon and can go home.  For work reasons, I wasn't able to accompany Amy and if all goes according to plan, Amy should be home sometime tomorrow afternoon.  I know it's hard on her to be away from the boys.  This is her first night away from the them in a long time and the first night away from everyone at one time since we've had Jackson.  But I'm really glad that she was able to see her sister today and that she was able to get Jesse home so that he could see his mom.  I'm also glad Amy had Jesse to ride with her.  Apparently they went through a lot of heavy rain and construction during the trip.

Before Amy could leave town today though, she and I had to take Ben to the emergency room for x-rays.  Why did we have to do that?  Because while Amy was getting ready, Ben walked into the living room poking and tugging at his throat.  He had a pained expression on his face, so I asked him if he had swallowed something.  He said "uh-huh."  When I asked him what he had swallowed, he said "One of these" and opened his hand to show me three pennies.  Amy called our pediatrician and I hit Google.  Our pediatrician is out of town on vacation, so Amy called the ER.  Meanwhile, I've learned from Google that there are only two really dangerous things that kids swallow; little round batteries and pennies.  Both are dangerous because if they get lodged in an esophagus, they will eat a hole in it as they dissolve.  Pennies made after 1982 are made from zinc, which is bad news for your throat.  If it makes it to your stomach, it's okay because it should pass before it causes any damage.  The ER told us that the only safe bet was to get a x-ray, because if something is lodged, it could move later and cause Ben to choke.  So off we went, for our first ER trip.  And if you had asked me which kid would get us in the ER first, my money would have been on Ben.  So anyway, the x-rays showed that Ben didn't have a penny in him, which was great news.  The doctor's theory was that Ben tried to swallow it, but gagged on it or coughed it back up and that's how he hurt his throat.  When the doctor asked Ben where the penny was, Ben pointed to the same spot of his throat that he had pulled on earlier.  And tonight, when Jackson and I were talking about Sherri's heart attack, Ben said "Does Sherri have a penny in her stomach?".  When I said "no", Ben said "Does she have a wormy in her stomach?"  So I guess Ben is going to equate going to hospital with eating things you shouldn't.

The boys were really upset that their cousin Jesse had to leave, so I took them to the creek for some summertime fun and for a visit with their great-grandmother.  Papa and Caleb joined the boys in the water where they tried to catch crawdads with home-made fishing poles.  They had chicken legs and hotdogs tied to the end of the strings.  Lots of fun.  The rest of Caleb's family joined us a little later for some front yard baseball and we got to visit with my uncle David too.  We came home, cleaned up and went to see Ice Age 2 - The Meltdown on Main Street.  Luckily they were tired enough to go to sleep without being tucked in by mommy.  

Click here to see photos from Saturday's trip to Sci-Works.          

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