The X-ray of Charlie’s belly went fine. He stood in the middle of the room, holding the back of his gown together and smiling nervously as the X-ray machines were thrust into motion.
"It’s like when they put Darth Vader back together," I said, referring to the futuristic hum of moving parts and metal unfolding and twisting above our heads.
Charlie smiled and nodded.
When it was done, the technician let us take a gander at Charlie’s insides on the computer monitor.
"You’ve got a lot of air in there, Charlie," she said.
She pointed to different spots on the X-ray.
"This is air. This is air. This is poo-poo (yes, she said poo-poo). And this is more air over here."
We went back to the waiting area as instructed and soon after, a doctor with an accent came over to us. Argentinean maybe.
When I first saw him approaching, I got a little concerned. I thought that it might not be typical for the doctor to come out to the waiting room.
"Is it possible the child swallow a small peen?"
"A pin???" I said, shocked.
"Yes. A peen."
I was still trying to digest this. (Pardon the pun).
"You’re saying you see a pin in his stomach???"
"Yes. Very small. In heeze colon."
I was speechless. A pin??? How could … ???
"Can you ask the child if maybe he swallow a peen?"
[OK, at this point, I suspect many of you would have solved this mystery before having to ask your 8-year-old son if he swallowed a pin. 1. He’s not a baby. And 2. He doesn’t even like to eat pins.]
"Hey Charlie. Do you remember swallowing a pin?"
His face looked like road kill.
And it was at that point that I finally realized that my son has diabetes and he wears a pump which is connected to a tube that is attached to his body via something that closely resembles a very small …
"peen."
so is that a yes?
No. It was the small needle from the infusion set in Charlie's butt that was picked up by the X-ray. I showed the doc and he was all like, "oh yes, that's the spot where I saw the peen." I was a bit surprised that he'd never done an X-ray of someone who wears a pump.
No he is sitting on a peen.
Insulin pump $6k
infusion set $35
teaching a doctor about a medical condition - priceless
Between this Dr. and the Oprah show with Dr. Oz...I don't even know what to say....
Carey,
May I ask which type of pump and infusion set Charlie is using? I am taken aback and actually quite astounded that there would still be some infusion sets around that still use metal pins under the skin rather than the softer flexible cannulas that are inserted with a metal pin but then the pin is removed immediately afterward. If there is indeed a metal "pin" that stays underneath Charlie's skin during insulin delivery... that might explain the past mention of bleeding around his infusion set, especially knowing how active Charlie is.
Dantony C.