The Rest of the Story

I realize in retrospect that I left my story about the penny hanging without telling how everything ended up.  Did we ever find the penny?  Well, here is here is the rest of the story. 

After getting home from the gym and checking all over Lyla, her seat, and the car to make sure that she wasn’t telling a fib, and after making her act out exactly what she did and where she felt the penny go, I was sure of it.  She definitely swallowed the penny.  I got online to try to get some answers about what to do.  I didn’t want to go to the ER for an x-ray.  I mean, who wants to spend $200 to get back $0.01?  The first report I read said that if the penny was made before a certain date, it was made with a certain corrosive material that would damage the lining of the stomach, therefore with pennies, go to the ER immediately.  I didn’t like what I read, so I kept reading other opinions.  The overwhelming other opinion was that kids swallow coins, and even the big ones most of the time manage to make their way out.  The obvious signs of abdominal cramping and such would be reason to go to the ER, but otherwise, wait for it to make its way out.

So, then started the rather unsavory job of poking through each you know what with bamboo skewers.  Each time there was a delivery, I had the joy of poking through it, hoping to find the penny.  Sure enough, whether it was the stress of knowing the penny was in there waiting to come out or something else, Lyla got pretty backed up.  It had been a couple days since her last delivery, and I knew a big delivery was coming. 

Sure enough, it came while I was trying to do reading with Nina.  It was a beautiful day, Nina’s friends were already knocking on the door, and she was itching to get outside, but we wanted to finish her reading work before heading out to play.  It had been a pattern that week that during Nina’s time to read, Lyla used the time to try to get attention.  It was frustrating for me and distracting for Nina.  So on this particular day, Lyla went into the bathroom during reading time, and I know what’s coming.  She started shouting from the bathroom about her delivery, wanting me to come in, see, search for the penny, etc.  We literally had one page of the book left for Nina to read, so I told Lyla, “Just hold one for one minute, and I’ll be right there.  Whatever you do, don’t flush!”  She kept shouting from the bathroom, and under much tension, Nina finished the last page of her book. I immediately jumped up and walked down the hall to the bathroom when I heard the toilet flushing.  Down went the evidence of several days of being backed up. 

I was convinced the penny was in that delivery, but I kept checking for a few days afterwards.  I never found it, so I’m certain it went down that one day.  You would think I would be relieved, but after all that poking and prodding, I wanted the satisfaction of actually seeing the penny and knowing with all certainty that it was out.  I’m not getting any satisfaction with this one.

About a week later, Lyla sat down on a chair that unknowingly had a penny on it.  When she got up and saw the penny on the seat she had just sat in, she actually thought the penny had finally come out.  Instead of giving a detailed explanation, I resigned myself to saying, “Ok, good.  I’m so glad!”