The 10,000 Toothpick

On August 2nd, we hosted a wedding for my brother-in-law Scot and his new bride Destiny. Some of the wedding party stayed here at the house, and others stayed close by. We held the rehearsal dinner here and all week long, before the wedding, there was a parade of wedding goers, flowers, bows, and ruffles through the house. The rehearsal dinner was on July 31st, two days before the wedding and was a great success! It was so much fun having a big group here, eating fajitas and enjoying the celebration of the upcoming wedding. We loved getting to know some of Scot's and Destiny's friends. Some of them we had heard about for years, so it was nice to put names with faces.

What does this all have to do with a 10,000 toothpick, you ask? Well, I'm getting ready to tell you!

At the wedding reception, there were small champagne bottles of bubbles for us to blow as the bride and groom left the party. My 4 boys were the only children at the wedding and enjoyed the bubbles more than the adults. My youngest son Brandon decided to ask all of the adults for the leftover bubbles and, consequently, gathered up about 20+ bottles to bring home with him.

We have a very large deck across the width of our home with a fabulous view of the valley. On August 6th, Brandon took his bubble stash out on the deck and started to blow bubbles. Unfortunately for the bubbles, we tend to have at least a bit of a breeze most of the time. As Brandon tried to pop the bubbles, they were blowing out of his reach. Due to his undaunted personality, he devised a great plan to reach any stray bubbles. This plan involved a box of toothpicks and a bunch of rubber bands. He decided that if he took 10 toothpicks and bundled them into bunches of 10 with rubber bands that he would have nice "bombs" to throw at the bubbbles.

Here is where I come in. I walked by one of the office chairs in my office area and saw a large pile of Brandon's "bombs" on the chair. I put a stop to the manufacturing process and told him to put the toothpicks and rubber bands back into their proper places. I also advised Brandon that if he should leave even one toothpick on the carpet that someone could get it stuck in their foot. We have Berber carpet in our family room and office area, which I concluded would be even more likely to cause toothpick, uh, complications.

So, Brandon did as I asked. The problem? He missed one. And, only 30 minutes later, he was running through the family room (which I also think is against the rules) and started screaming that he had a toothpick stuck in his foot. I looked, and sure enough, he had a toothpick embedded in the fleshy part of his foot just below his big toe. And, to make matters worse, the toothpick broke off, leaving about 2/3 of a toothpick (about 1.5") stuck inside the foot. Of course this happened at 8:00 PM, so the only medical option available to us was the ER. I really dislike going to the ER and waiting for hours. I assessed the situation and since he had feeling in the toe and was not going into shock, I phoned the on-call Dr. at our pediatrician's office and followed their advice to bring him in the next day. (Can you tell I keep a cool head during emergencies?)

August 7th: As we went to the Dr., he advised us to go to the ER because they have better equipment to deal with the problem. Great, just great. At least I was grateful that we were spending the day in the ER instead of spending the night in the ER. At this point, I should also mention that Tom (the hubby) was out on the Oregon Coast at Camp Meriweather with our two middle boys at a week long Boy Scout camp. I should also mention that I was also in charge of a dinner at church this same evening for about 40 women.

OK, so we reached the ER, and after we finally got seen, the first thing they did was to send him to x-ray his foot. This was basically useless because toothpicks don't show up on x-rays. A bit later, a nurse practitioner came in to care for Brandon. She numbed the foot and attempted to remove the toothpick. All she managed to do was break off a small piece, which allowed the remainder of the toothpick to disappear completely into his foot. Next, they brought in a doctor, who attempted to cut the toothpick out with no success. After that, he brought an ultrasound machine to check the position of the toothpick. He could see it was in the foot but the test wasn't able to pinpoint the location. They brought in a surgeon who decided it would be better to take it out in surgery instead of in the ER.

August 8th: We got to the hospital nice and early for Brandon's surgery. The surgery went smoothly and very well except for one problem: They were unable to locate and remove the toothpick. They stitched up his foot and sent us home. I think they were pretty sure I was nuts and that there was no toothpick in his foot. They said if there was a toothpick remaining in the foot it could be absorbed by the body, or it could work its way out.

August 20th: Brandon had a follow-up appointment with the surgeon and got his stitches out. His foot was still swollen and tender.

August 23rd: I spent the day at the beach with the women from church. After arriving home, I kissed Brandon good night and realized that he felt hot. This was about 11:00 PM; I checked his temperature and he was running a fever of 101. I checked his foot first thing and it didn't look so great. It almost looked like the toothpick was coming back out, so my hubby checked it with tweezers, which resulted in a fountain of pus coming out of the foot. After consulting with the surgeon's office, they determined that he needed to be seen that night because of the fever. I took Brandon back to the ER, but by the time he was seen by the Dr., his fever was falling because the infection was draining. They told me to just keep it draining until we could see the surgeon.

August 27th: Brandon visited the surgeon who decided to schedule him for an MRI. His foot was still draining and not happy. It would take a day or two to schedule the MRI, so we went home to wait. Later that night, Brandon started hollering that the toothpick was coming out. Sure enough, I looked at the foot and that darn toothpick was starting to emerge. I grabbed the end with my bare fingers and it came right out, about 1.5" long, and none the worse for wear. It just looked like a regular, old toothpick!!

September 3: On the first day of school, Brandon made his last visit to the surgeon with a much happier foot and the toothpick in a baggie instead of in his foot. Hurray.

In all, that darn toothpick cost approximately $10,000 to NOT remove it from his foot!!

Welcome to my world as Brandon's Mom. He's always up to something, though this was by far his most expensive adventure!