Little Side Note to Chapter One

I just remembered which of the kids and why we had gone to Dr. Wilbur's!  On the Fourth of July, Shelby had tried to ingest a penny!  Said penny became lodged at the juncture of her esophagus and her trachea.  Poor baby couldn't swallow, drool just pouring out of her mouth.  We knew what the problem was, we just didn't know essential details.  Anyway, initially, we had loaded her up and headed out to Mtn. Home.  We didn't even get out of Berryville until we decided that we had better just go to the ER there.  And of course, we get there, and they decide the best thing to do is to fly her to Springfield, because the surgeon on call didn't really want to handle that one.  As it turned out, however, the surgeon's brother was in town for the holidays.  His brother, who himself is apparently a world-renowned pediatric surgeon from Philadelphia.  Anyway, he calls his brother and his brother tells him what to do (no kidding).  They took Shelby, our 14-month old little angel, into surgery.  When they went to intubate her, the penny slid on down the esophagus.  (Technically, we didn't know it was a penny for several more days, if you get my meaning.)  Thirty minutes later, we were taking her home with nothing more than a sore throat.  That was on Wednesday, July 4, 2001.  The next day we called Dr. Wilbur, and of course he wanted to see her and examine her himself.  And so we went to Mtn. Home, and needed gas in Harrison on the way home. And met the guy at the gas station, and talked to Ryan that night, etc., etc., etc.