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juillet 05, 2005
Apples Don't Belong in Lungs
Hey everyone!
The medical drama continues! (I'm starting to think they need to do a show on us on the Discovery Health Channel). Maddie aspirated some apple into her right lung last night at around six o'clock. Seriously what are the chances? It was the exact same thing that happened on October 5th of last year. This time there wasn't the drama of the helicopter ride, (which was quite nice really because it wasn't nearly as scary or urgent). She had been eating an apple (she was spitting out the peel into our hands but she had become quite attached to the action of holding the apple herself and taking little bites, we were, to our credit, watching her quite closely). What happened was that because of her fondness for the apple, she didn't want to give it up even though the seeds were going to be appearing soon, so I asked Mike to take it away from her because I didn't have the heart. Well, as soon as he did she took that big toddler breath before a big scream and that's when it happened. She apparently still had some apple in her mouth at the moment. She started coughing and gagging like crazy for like 20 minutes, during which time we weren't sure what to do because she was able to cry and breathe somewhat. After the 20 or so minutes she calmed down, started to breathe much better, and toddled off to play. She would still cough some. Well I was about 80% sure she was fine, but I called the doc anyway just to see what she wanted me to do. She sent us to the ER at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (Scottish Rite). Even there all the nurses said she sounded good so I thought we'd be going home. Well the ER doc said he heard uneven breath sounds and that her chest x-ray didn't look too good either so he called the surgery doc to see what she wanted to do, and she decided because of what we described happened and with the physical findings, that they would need to do surgery to go see if there was anything there, apparently if there is something there and you leave it there it can damage the lung(s) pretty bad. So, we consented and off she went to surgery around midnight. At around 1:00am (we were admitted already and in her room) they brought her up and said they found a little piece of apple with a little bit of peel on it in her right bronchus. I think it was pretty good sized but nothing compared to the piece of chicken from last time (that was occupying 70% of her main airway). So we just got home from the hospital and Maddie is doing really well. She did really well after surgery and had no complications. She has had some IV steroids and she got breathing treatments every 4 hours, which we will now continue at home. I'm going to take her to her ped. tomorrow and see if she thinks she needs some more feeding therapy or if she feels she needs any more studies to perhaps explain this reoccurrence. It could be a fluke, but it is the 3rd time this has happened. We thought the heart surgery and feeding therapy had solved the problem though. She seems to still have decreased oral awareness, which would explain why she lost track of the apple while she started to scream (I mean, kids do all sorts of crazy things with food in their mouths, but it seems most can keep track of it and know to spit it out when the going gets tough).
Maddie right after surgery and FINALLY falling asleep at 3:00am
I got to the gift shop right when they opened so I could get something special for my brave girl.
Feeling better, rocking with my Daddy and watching "A Bugs Life" with my new giraffe.
We're home! Ah, how I've missed the buzz of the nebulizer....Maddie is getting her first breathing treatment at home (this year...).
Lung
Well, we'll keep ya'll updated!!! Please pray for her ity bity lungs to heal well and fast.
Posted by carriec at juillet 5, 2005 05:59 PM
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Comments
This was hopefully just a "freak" thing...we have to prevent those somehow...maybe someone will have some ideas of what is going on here...in the meantime we should pray and thank God everyday as she is as you say a "very happy girl".
P.S. I might have showered had I known these pictures of me were to be posted on the internet :)
Posted by: mc at juillet 5, 2005 09:42 PM
that is freakin' scary! Man guys, that's rough. Josiah isn't always so great about apples or meat, and I give him peanuts even though they are the worst things to give him. I've started peeling his apples, but he would take the peel out. I think most toddlers have issues with gagging, swallowing, and basically liking certain foods. I found Jos will not swallow things that he doesn't like. He'll also barf if he gags. But maybe Maddie does have a larger windpipe. Maybe she'll be a heckuva singer one day!
Posted by: katiek at juillet 5, 2005 10:41 PM
insane.
Posted by: andyp at juillet 6, 2005 07:40 AM