First Year of living in Fregon
My son the cash register
October 1990 and this month David managed to swallow a $1 coin. I had sent him over to Bronwyn's house. Bronwyn lived across the road and sold drinks and sandwiches after the store had closed. David had no where to carry the change so he decided the safest place would be to put it in his mouth. Half way across the dirt road he had forgotten it was there and took a drink from the can of coke. It is amazing that it went down because it is the exact same size as his oesphagus.
Leonie, David on the left and James
on the right
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Goodwyn (an Anangu elder) rushed him inside to me, spluttering and choking. I rushed into the bathroom hoping he would vomit, however he continued to choke so I gave him some hard whacks on the back. Nope, still choking but at least he was breathing. I decided that it must have gone down, so I threw him into the car and rushed him over to the clinic. Being a Saturday afternoon if there wasn't anyone attending the clinic I would have to go in search of someone. Luckily there was a HealthCare worker there, she took one look at David and ran to get the nurse - Cynthia.
She rang Alice Springs Flying Doctor (beauty I might get a ride in the Nomad to Alice Springs hospital). After some discussion and observations they decided that the airway was OK - fantastic however they weren't so sure about the Oesophagus. Cynthia gave he some mashed banana and thank goodness that went down. Meanwhile Goodwyn and Muntwa had walked over to the clinic from our house. I'd taken off in such a hurry and not even asked if they wanted to come as well, as they had shown such concern before. To help with David's pain he was given a strong painkiller and some sleeping medicine and he was very groggy.
Goodwyn and Muntwa wanted to do some faith healing on David as well, as he was so ill. I had never seen any faith healing done before and David didn't seem to protest so "why not" I thought. We knelt around David and place our hand on his head. Goodwyn and Muntwa started praying in Pitj and in Pigeon English and I could only understand a word every now and again. However I was amazed at the warm radiating from their hands - they almost seemed to be glowing. After the prayers had finished she said that he would be all right.
Later I asked if David had felt anything when the ladies were praying and calling on God to cure him, he had said that he felt heat come down from his head to the rest of his body. Who know if it was the pain killers or the prays however I do know that for a 5 year old to notice that something was different, there must have been something. As we were leaving to come home Cynthia gave me some rubber gloves and told me the good news of looking for the dollar after a few days. Yep I had to check David's poo for signs of the money just in case it had twisted the bowel. The wonderful jobs that mothers have to do to keep their children in good health. After a week of the coin still not coming out, Julie (the resident doctor) decided that he may need x-rays and that could only be done in Alice Springs or in Adelaide, both meant a long drive for me. As it was only days to the holidays I decided that we would take the long drive to Adelaide where I didn't have to pay for accommodation and I could see my own local doctor.
