Mineral deposit

I was eating lunch with my Mama and Auntie a few days ago, lamenting my dementia and the fact that I love to write in here, but can never think of anything to write about. My mother was kind enough to bring back a wonderful memory for me. Something that any OTHER Mama would be remiss to forget! And yet...I forget.

For Caleb's 6th birthday I decided it would be fun to get him a CTR ring (for anyone not educated in "Mormon" lingo, "CTR" stands for "Choose The Right". Kind of our version of "WWJD"). Not those narsty lil ones they give out at church that chip green paint, turn one's finger green, or deliver a wicked blood blister if someone squeezes your hand too hard. I went to "FarWest" and bought him a nice little sterling silver one with a blue (his favorite color) ceramic inlay. Very COOL looking ring for a 6 year old!

He wore it with pride and enjoyed having something on his hand that his classmates asked him about (the very purpose of a good "CTR" ring!). Lil CJ wore his new ring without incident for a good 2 weeks before I got the call...The call came from the school nurse one afternoon, (those calls always make a mom's heart stop).

According to the Nurse my little guy went to wash his hands in the class sink, and not wanting his ring to get wet (you know, I've never understood that. Who gives a rip if the ring gets wet? Unless it's one of those horrifying cheap tin rings), he tried to take off his ring. It was not easily removed (for his mama is AWESOME, and had it sized perfectly) so he proceeded to put his finger in his mouth and, using his teeth as some sort of plier-like device pryed the ring off of his finger. His teacher noticed that his hands were yet unwashed and his face was red, his blue eyes huge.

"Um...you okay Caleb?" she asks with concern. "No, I just swallowed my ring" he replies with...well, concern. This is where the nurse comes into the story and gives Mom a heart attack.

Let's see, this is my 3rd child...2 kids after psycho, overprotective, helicopter mom...and 2 kids BEFORE completely exhausted, "if you're not spurting blood, STIFLE!" mom. SOOO, I did call the doctor, but did NOT take him to the Emergency Room. Sadly, the doc did choose to inconvenience me by sending us to the Imaging Clinic for an x-ray. Frankly, I'm not certain that she just didn't want a picture of something interesting to show at the next Doctor's Bunco tournament.

The X-ray WAS very interesting to look at. A perfect little CTR ring (yes, it was quite evident what kind of ring it was) all settled in his stomach. So now I have the doctor wondering what we should do. Do we give him ipecac and have him throw it up? Yeah, lets try that!

Ipecac is evidently best used when one wants to hurl up something that weighs LESS than .4 oz.

Her next idea? Bread...feed the kid lots of bread and push that ring right on out!! Um excuse me Doc? Exactly how are we to know if the ring has extricated from it's current location? Uh huh...Say what now??

I mentioned that this is my 3rd child, not my 1st right? I stopped having to see that particular bi-product of THIS particular kid 4 & 1/2 years ago!!

Needless to say, although I love Caleb sooooooo very much, I have no physical evidence that his ring ever left his system. I'm only hoping that a sewer system somewhere in Pasco is "Choosing the Right!"