So, mom swallowed a needle. Wha? Yes, she swallowed a needle. WT? Exactly. I was sitting in my office (the dining room) working on the computer (probably FaceBooking) and she jumped up off the couch and looked at me with great surprise.
“I just swallowed a needle!” she exclaimed.
“You did what?” I blurted
“I just swallowed a needle!” she replied a tad panicky.
“Well how’d you do that?” queried I.
My mom is an avid cross stitcher. “Well, I had the needle in my mouth as I was changing thread colors and I, well, I….I don’t know! All I know was it was at the back of my mouth and I couldn’t grasp it and then I swallowed it!”
Knowing a bit about hand needle work, I found this scenario quite plausible. “You’ll be fine, mom,” I said, “it’ll go down, through and out just fine. And, just in case I’ll Google it.”
“What are you going to Google? Stupid human tricks?” she asked.
“Not directly,” said I.
All I could find were stories about dogs, cats and toddlers – not a 74-year-old woman with a bad stomach already. I did see one story that caught my eye. If was from the New York Times in 1900 about a youngster who swallowed a needle and many months later it made its way out through his skin, right beneath his rib cage. I didn’t share that story with mom.
Just so happened that at that time my sister called with news of Devyn Rose Sparrer. Yep, this family is having a little girl. We are thrilled. Mom got all the details and at the end of the conversation asked my Nurse Practitioner sister what do to about the needle. She said the same thing I did. It’ll pass in 24 to 48 hours, not to worry.
We are all waiting on pins and needles (couldn’t help myself) to see what happens. Forty-eight hours is nearly now. Yesterday at the movies, as the screen actors drank a shot of tequila, mom asked if maybe that would disintegrate her needle. I snorted and said no but if the urban legend is true, a good cold Coca Cola should do the trick. Tonight mom's enjoying a large Coca Cola, we are keeping her away from magnetic devices, and we wait.
OMG,, dont tell your mom,, yet my mother swallowed one of those magnic strip off of a thing I was making and she was helping me with.. we called her dr and he said the same thing on coke and a good dose of lax (MOM) took a day yt it work this is when she was in the nursing home here in Plattsmouth, she had in her mouth and got a coughing spell, swallowed instead of spit it out.
ReplyDeletesteph