We made an emergency room run this morning, #3 and I.\u00a0 He has a stomach ache which has lasted 24 hours and has not gotten better.\u00a0 In a regular kid, I\u2019d put him to bed and bring him toast and chicken soup.\u00a0 He\u2019s not a regular kid. He eats things that aren\u2019t food.\u00a0 Stomach aches are serious business, because not food stuff in your intestine could kill you.<\/p>\n
When we got to the hospital, the waiting room had only one person sitting in the chairs.\u00a0 She obviously had to flu, so I sat him as far from her as possible.\u00a0 When I filled out the \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you?\u201d form, I wrote \u201cbelly pain with a history of ingesting non-food items.\u201d\u00a0 That should be clear.<\/p>\n
It must not be.\u00a0 The male 30-something nurse who took us back for triage said \u201cWhat do you mean by non-food items.\u00a0 What does he eat?\u201d<\/p>\n
I smiled in that don\u2019t-judge-me-I\u2019m-really-a-good-mom way, sighed and said, \u201cIn the past he\u2019s eaten rocks, sticks, Legos, Barbie shoes, ball bearings..you name it.\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes lit up and he leaned a little closer to me.\u00a0 As my 9 year old sat next to me, the nurse said. \u201cHave you seen that show Addicts? It\u2019s all about how people get addicted to eating weird stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
I silently pleaded with him to shut up and explained that we don\u2019t have cable.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh\u2026that\u2019s too bad.\u00a0 There was this guy last night who was really messed up.\u00a0 He ate his sofa cushions.\u00a0 What a freak.\u201d\u00a0 He said in front of my son who once chewed the leather upholstery off a chair.\u00a0 \u201cThose people are crazy.\u00a0 They\u2019ll eat anything.\u00a0 Nut jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
My son turned a worried gaze in my direction as I patted his hand.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019ll be okay.\u201d I told him.\u00a0 \u201cI love you.\u201d<\/p>\n
We left the emergency room this morning without seeing anyone.\u00a0 His stomach was feeling a bit better after we sat for 3 hours in the waiting room chairs.\u00a0 (I would think a possible perforation would be an emergency\u2026.It seems that I\u2019m wrong.)\u00a0 He\u2019s in bed sipping broth and I\u2019m writing an angry letter to the Director of Nursing.\u00a0\u00a0 #3 may not have learned a lot in school last semester, but by golly I\u2019ve learned to write a letter.\u00a0 (I just wish I had the nerve to say it to the jerk\u2019s face.)<\/p>\n
I am mystified by people.\u00a0 I get that what my son does is strange and that the medical staff will talk about it.It\u2019s interesting to people, especially those in the medical profession.\u00a0 Heck, I <\/i>would talk about it if he weren\u2019t my beloved child.\u00a0 I would just hope that I would have the sense to not discuss it in front of him, to remember that he is a human being, and to see the impact I was having on the person with those big scared eyes.<\/p>\n
***Edited to add: I read this to my son who nodded his head and said, \u201cYeah, Mom, that\u00a0 guy was a jerk\u2026.but can you tell the blog people that I don\u2019t chew stuff any more?\u00a0 I go to vision therapy.\u00a0 I don\u2019t eat things now.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, blog people, #3 no longer eats non-food things.\u00a0 He just has a crazy mother who can\u2019t let go of the past.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We made an emergency room run this morning, #3 and I.\u00a0 He has a stomach ache which has lasted 24 hours and has not gotten better.\u00a0 In a regular kid, I\u2019d put him to bed and bring him toast and chicken soup.\u00a0 He\u2019s not a regular kid. He eats things that aren\u2019t food.\u00a0 Stomach aches […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n