Richards Family: September 12 2005

It was 4 years ago on September 12th when our little Tbone was admited to primary childrens with a dime lodged in his esophagus. He was 9 months old. This is a story about a $60,000 dime pictured below. Thank goodnes for health insurance we paid $2000 out of pocket!! 1 week prior to this my mom was watching tbone and he tends to hold his breath and pass out he was crawling on her floor and she said he kind of gagged held his breath and passed out it scared the crap out of her cause he had never done it before for her but plenty of times for me so nothing bad was thought about it. That same week Nates great grandma sue passed away we went to Ely for her funeral and out there Treyson held his breath and passed out which again i was used to. However, on the way to Ely Tbone had gained a cough and we noticed it sounded kind of like croup we decided if he was not better when we got home I would take him into the dr. When we got home he was not better I got in with Dr. Brown and P.A. Kevin Anderson (yes my relative) could not hear anything but decided we needed xrays to check the chest and see. Well to our little surprise there it was the what we thought at the time was a penny lodged in his esophagus I started balling!! Nate was in Colorado in the semi and here I am home so they said we needed to get to primarys. Primarys told Dr. Brown that lifeflight would be there in 30 min to get him I started to sob called my mom and told her to get ready. Called Nate and work. Nate told me do not let lifeflight take him dont let them take him you get in the car and drive up there!! I decided and since I was an EMT at the time that he still had and airway my mom would watch him on the way up that I would drive. I told Dr. Brown to call lifeflight to tell them I am a EMT and to cancel them and I also knew the number to 911 if I needed help!! (since that is where I work). He told me to call if I needed anything. We stopped at producers on the way up and had my brother Wayne give him a preisthood blessing. We got to primaries and I know the way since I had a 2 week stay there for my heart issue. They took him right in the Ear Nose and Throat Dr. told my mom and I the procedure and to hope it was a penny and not a dime cause dimes cause lots more damage and that was worse case scenerio due to the rough edges than a penny!! We waited and he came he told us it was the worse case scenerio and it was a dime that put a 2 mm tear in his esophagus and handed the dime to me. I went to see my baby and he was MAD after coming out of surgery and of course kept holding his breath so the nures would freak out which he became well known for his 2 week stay of the kid who held his breath! but the nurses would freak out not his mommy though!! Later that night they put us in a room and gave Tbone a feeding tube down his nose told us that he would need that until his tear healed and he was not to hav anything down his throat. That night Tbone was still restless he wanted me to hold him we noticed he was having a hard time breathing so the nurse listened to him and said I need to call the Dr asap I believe he has a pneumothorax I started to sob once again and my mom looked at me and said whats that I told her collapsed lung I know I was an EMT at the time the nurse looked surprised that I knew what I was talking about by then it was about 4 in the morning. We were immediatly taken to PICU intensive care. The surgeons put in a chest tube that remained with my baby for 7 days. We were in PICU for 2 days and in the hospital for a total of 14 days. His throat was not healing like the Drs thought. The Ear Nose and Throat Drs had never seen anything like it. Well on one night taking Xrays they noticed fluid around his lungs and throat and was going to schedule surgery immediaty to put in drains Nate and I were devistated!! He was receiving three Heavy antibiotics every 3 hours through a piccline that went straight into his heart plus being fed by a feeding tube still. We called the family for a special fast and prayer in Treysons behalf. One of the surgeons who had actually checked on treyson earlier to get his chest tube out called us and we happened to tell him and he was going out of town for a couple of days and it was not doing any harm to treyson and he told us we needed to decide on a Dr. to make the choices. We had really liked this Dr. so we went with him and he called the Ear Nose and Throat Drs and told them that surgery was not to be done on Tbone until he returned and could look at the Xrays. It turned out to be pneumonia from the chest tube which is very common. Tbone and I were getting restless his tear was healing but not as fast as they thought I wanted to get home!! Dr. Downey decided we could only if we came home with a G-button which was put right into Treysons stomach so I could still feed him and do home health until he was better. I had to do his antibiotics through his picc line which when we got home and home health which is wonderful!! Was there as my support and they told me no matter what time of night they would be there and they were for the first 3 days until I felt comfortable enough to do alot of things on my own. starting at 7 am I had to give 3 strong antibiotics every three hours every day The last one was given at 1 am. He had to have feedings in his g-button every 3 hours starting at 7 am until 8 pm with certain calories than I would hook him up to a pump at night with formula from 8 pm to 7 am. Needles to say no sleep was gotten. It took 3 weeks of being on home health for his throat to heal!! He was weaned from his bottle cause I was not going to re wean him after that and he is now healthy and happy with 2 belly buttons a scar was left from his g-button!! I am so grateful for my husband, family, friends support!! I appreciate my co workers picking up the slack for me!! We received tons of calls and visits from lots of friends and prayers.!!! I hope you enjoy this read I know it is long. I hope you can see the pictures I had to scan them in

$ 60,000.00 dime

Some of the first days of our Journey

This is after being in PICU

my poor baby

Tbone in ICU

This is a sign that they made for the kids in PICU

Name tag that they made for the bed.

Starting to feel lots better.

The bikers against child abuse came to visit and brought toys for the kids we had a good ole time this is the Toys R us girrafe came

Monster Truck that came with the baca

Dad could I please have one?

His cute little personality started to show through!!

The play pen they brought to his room to play in so he was not always in his hospital crib/bed

This is some of the stuff that came home with us it filled the whole back of my Aunt Tamies minivan She was so awesome to come and get us Nate could not make it home to get us and he had the car!! Grandma Cowley and Aunt Tamie came and got us to bring us home.