i've called 911 twice in my life....
once was a couple of months ago after one of the severe thunderstorms had come through. a tree limb had fallen in front of our neighbor's house...i woke up around 2:30am to the sound of chain saws cutting up the limbs. i'm not sure where nick was or i may have asked him to go talk to the guys (i think he was visiting a friend in birmingham)...instead i fumbled around in my blind sleepy state and found my phone and dialed 911 (i really can't see without my contacts/glasses). the conversation went something like this (in my most sleepiest of voices):
"i live at 2215 19th ave...and there are some men using chain saws to cut up a limb that fell...and i just wanted to check and see if the city sent them...cause if the city sent them i'm going to be grateful and patient and impressed by their timeliness....but if they are some random guys cutting up firewood, i'm going to ask if you can send someone to tell them to s-t-o-p."
the lady checked and said "the city sent them." i said "ok. thanks." and hung up and waited for them and their efficient selves to get done so i could go back to sleep.
the other time i called 911 was today. if you happened to be near lakebottom and heard a siren today around 2:30 it just may have been heading to 2215 19th Ave.
eli swallowed a quarter....he was breathing but said it was stuck and it hurt and he was pretty much freaking out -- including phrases like "i can't breathe...God help me...i'm going to die..." (pretty big phrases for a 6 year old). i was surprisingly calm - including phrases like "you are breathing...God is with you and helping you...you're not going to die." i tried to get him to throw it up...that didn't work...he kept saying it was stuck so i decided to call ye olde paramedics. they showed up in a timely fashion...but they sure didn't rush up like they do in the movies. guess you can't always believe what you see on tv. the guy said "so do you want to take him on to the hospital?" i said "um....no....i just want you to tell me that he's ok." their opinion was that it had moved on down his throat but it was still hurting him because of the size of the quarter - that coin is rather big for the esophagus. eli continued to freak out a bit while the guys lectured him a bit about not swallowing coins (though i don't understand why my lectures didn't work last week when he swallowed a dime and a penny!!! yes, he did.). he continued to freak out after they left. he finally calmed down when i told him he could watch star wars to recover. sweet boy...trauma drama.
he's officially fine - he's fussing at caroline about something or other and having deep discussions about wookies. i'm very thankful that he's ok. wonder if this is going to convince him not to put money in his mouth....i'm not altogether sure.
(the other "funny" part was when one of the paramedics said, "now you know there's a $1200 co-pay for ambulance visits." i almost thought he was serious...almost...but i happened to catch the grin on his partner's face - and i thought $1200 was too high to be a co-pay. jerk. just kidding. it was pretty funny.)
