You may or may not know this, but Maya loves to chew on things. It may be a habit as a parent you would be inclined to break, however for many reasons we have not kept Maya from this habit. What we do try to control is WHAT she chews on, however, that can be a challenge as well. Due to Maya NOT eating orally, we REALLY encourage her to put stuff in her mouth. If a child never eats and does not put things in their mouth they become "orally adversive"...meaning they won't put anything in their mouth, and will gag or vomit or cry if you even try to put something in their mouth. Maya does not like you putting stuff in her mouth, but does enjoy exploring orally on her own.
On to my story of last night. We were driving to my brother-in-law's house, home of the "Big Cousins", Katya and Sonya...a favorite destination point for us and our girls, plus they just got a new puppy! On the way there, Maya was chewing on the collar of her jacket (not something I love for her to chew on, but I was sitting in front and she is in the way back). About a block from Uncle Kurt's house, I notice Maya was choking...it took me a second to realize this was not just a coughing fit, like she has after eating sometimes, but she was scared, coughing, and crying, and her color was fading. Dean pulled over, I quickly pulled off the cap of her trach, which thankfully gave her an open airway to breathe through (with the cap on she breathes through her nose and mouth like we do). She was moving air, but still very uncomfortable, crying, and coughing a ton. I soon noticed that where she had been chewing on her jacket the top 2-3 teeth of the zipper and the tip top of the zipper (not the part you pull) was missing, and it was inside of Maya somewhere. We started to notice blood from her trach, so we quickly drove to Kurt's and called 911 (we were too far from the hospital for me to feel comfortable driving).
After an assessment from the Firemen who arrived, they called the ambulance. Dean got his 2nd drive in an ambulance...I still have yet to have that experience. Oddly enough, Maya clamed down just as the pulled into the ER at Mary Bridge Children's hospital here in Tacoma. With Maya's condition we skip the wait in the ER waiting room, and are very quickly seen. (a nice perk!) They did an X-ray to see if the zipper piece went into her lungs, which would definitely cause a terrible pnuemonia. The x-ray came back normal, and the doctor seemed to believe she swallowed it. The zipper piece would not show up on X-ray -it was plastic, but had it entered her lungs, she would have shown some definite changes in her lungs, as the body tried to fight it. So poor Maya cannot swallow thin liquids properly, but I guess she can swallow a zipper...silly girl...let's try some food next time...okay?!?!?
Maya was discharged after 2 hours (our fastest ER visit yet, and the only one we have been sent home from), and now we just monitor her to make she she did not aspirate her own saliva from all that coughing, into her lungs, which could cause pnuemonia too OR perhaps we will see a zipper piece in her diaper in the next day or two. So far she is just fine, went to school and is now on her rocking horse, bouncing and rocking away...I think she is going to be just fine.
As for Addy , she had a wonderful evening playing with her BIG Cousins and the new puppy...Thanks again Kurt for helping us out last night!
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