The Go Stone Story

It was Mother's Day 2006 when Reed was about 18 mos old.

I was taking stones form the game “Go,” putting them into my eye sockets and squinting to hold them in place. Reed was lying on the floor looking up at me and I loomed over him making funny faces. Unexpectedly, one of the stones came loose. I watched it tumble end over end in what seemed like slow motion, into Reed’s open maw. Bull’s-eye! He immediately and hungrily swallowed the stone.

My then agile mind (this was 2 years and one child ago) whirred into motion. I could tell my wife and my in-laws and they would probably insist we go to the emergency room. We’d sit there for hours, as Reed screamed, Reed would be examined, as he screamed, Reed would be x-rayed, as he screamed, and then we’d be sent home to examine his subsequent poops for evidence that the stone had passed. Alternately, we could not be concerned and proceed directly to the last step (examining his poop) bypassing much unnecessary stress and sleep deprivation.

Fear of reprisal if I wasn’t honest won out and I let everyone know what happened, expecting the worst. I lobbied my case as a former x-ray technologist who had x-rayed many children who had swallowed unusual objects. I particularly recalled a small, round bell that a child had ingested on Christmas Eve some years ago. We took the x-rays to confirm the bell had been ingested and the ER doc advised his parent to examine his poop for proof of the bell’s exiting his alimentary canal, to allow a week.

To my delight and surprise, my conservative strategy was adopted. All seemed well.
The next day I was leaving on a 4-day biz trip so Mechelle and her Mom were to scan Reed’s poops for evidence of the stone.

5 days had passed and I was just walking in the door to our home, back from another banal biz trip. The stone hadn’t surfaced but we all assumed the gray mass must have been missed amidst the horror of Reed’s excrement.

I had just walked in the door hadn’t had a chance to even change after coming in off the redeye from LAX. Reed pooped as I was holding him and after 4 days without changing a diaper I thought this one was mine.

I laid Reed on the floor, unfastened his diaper and sitting atop the steaming, vile mass in his diaper was the stone. I cracked-up. It was like he was saving it for me.

I wished I saved that stone as it might have become a family heirloom or icon. At least I have published this tale for the retelling.

--TB
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