Every Superman Has His Kryptonite

#3 is our very own superhero, handsome and chivalrous and full of daring-do.  Like most comic book heroes, he has his weaknesses.  Superman has Kryptonite, #3 has Legos and small shiny things.  They do not weaken him on their own, but he finds them irresistible.  He eats them

When he was little, we knew he liked to chew things.  We found chewed up bits of plastic all over our house, but as he got older we found fewer and fewer until the day we found none.  What a relief those days were.  It never occurred to us that he was still chewing them; he was just hiding the evidence by swallowing them down.

We were in the dark until last Thursday when the toilet in the children’s bathroom stopped working.  It was plugged up with a pile of half-digested plastic bricks.  We took him to our family doctor who was concerned, but not overly so.  He scheduled a CT scan for today and told us to take it easy over the weekend and keep an eye on his diet.

Last night just after midnight, he lurched into our room holding his belly and moaning.  “It hurts,” he said.  We knew his appointment was for lunchtime today and so we tried to settle him down thinking that having plastic bits making their way through your intestines was bound to be uncomfortable.  He slept on the floor in the bathroom because he felt “throw-up-y”.  His dad curled up with him and rubbed his back.

At 8 this morning, he was writhing in pain and grinding his teeth.  I helped him dress, threw on the first clean clothes I found, grabbed #6 and left for the Emergency Room.  Our appointment was at 1:00, and I knew we’d never make it that long.

His belly was probed, x-rayed and scanned, then he was rushed by ambulance to Children’s Hospital.  He’s still there tonight.  His big, strong dad is still sitting next to him and rubbing his back and helping him feel better.  The doctors are debating between seeing what Nature can do, and surgery.  Please say a prayer tonight that they choose Nature.  Please pray that they don’t have to cut open my baby.

The world needs super-heroes, I know this because I live with one, so I know how wonderful they can be.