Happy 60th Anniversary Grandma & Grandad... plus the button story!!

My Grandparents celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary on Thursday. They are such a beautiful couple. We went out to dinner on Thursday night to celebrate and then held a roast lunch yesterday for about 50 at a local hall. It was a great day and everthing went really smoothly and everyone enjoyed themselves. I was in charge of the decorations(my favourite part of partying), nibbles and made a giant bowl of tiramisu. I made some balloon arrangements for the tables, placecards, fact sheets about 1948, a photo arrangement for the wall, wine bottle labels and a photo compilation DVD set to Louis Armstrong. My Aunt Marie did a fantastic job of decorating the cake. It was great to see my cousins Karen and Lisa and their gorgeous kids who came up from down south. My Aunt Diane and Uncle Paul and my Aunt Glenda and Aunt Fay travelled to make it as well. We got some great photos of all the generations that were there. Oh and if anyone has Grandparents that are celebrating their 60th anniversary did you know that you can get a letter from the Queen?

We decided to set up on Friday night but they hold bingo in the hall on Friday nights so we decided to go to bingo as well. None of us had played bingo before and my Mum won the first prize of the night and then Paul won another prize later in the night as well as the lucky door prize. When he won the lucky door prize and they bought it over to him he said, "and to think I only came to try and pick up chicks". All the elderly ladies in the hall got a laugh out of that although we did get a few looks and groans as winning newbies.

So here's a few photos of my Grandparents and the celebrations.

The cake that my Aunt Marie beautifully decorated. Dosn't it look great?Grandma and Grandad cutting the cake.Grandma and Grandad with their kids:

Back left to right, Jenny, Jaamy, Rob & Diane

Front left to right, Joy(my Mum), Grandad, Grandma and FayGrandma and Grandad with some of their grandchildren.

Back left to right, Brad, Jody(Me), Aaron, Kevin(my brother) and Karen

Front left to right, Jack(the ring in, he's a great grandchild), Grandad, Grandma, Jasmine and LisaGrandma and Grandad with some of their great grandchildren (& their Mum's)

Back left to right, Joe, Anzac, Lisa, Zoe, Karen & Cody

Front left to right, Grandad, Patrick, Rasharna holding Bronwyn, Grandma, Jessica and Jack.

And here's one of my favourite photos of my Grandparents in their younger days.So as I said, the day went really well and everyone seemed to have a good time. I feel very lucky to be part of such a loving and supportive family.

Now to break up the two stories in this post I thought I'd post a photo of the beautiful orchid that my Mum bought me. Isn't it just stunning!!

And now for the button story!!
So Saturday afternoon we came home from Grandma & Grandad's Anniversary party and unpacked the car and started putting everything away. I went into our bedroom to discover that Jack had climbed up onto the laundry hamper and gotten a button in a little ziplock bag out of one the trinket boxes I have up on the TV unit in our room. He was so proud of himself for getting it down and was jumping around excitedly showing Owen and I this button. Owen and I went back our of the room and while Owen continued to get ready to go out I continued to put things away. We both went back into the bedroom a couple of minutes later and Jack happily announced that his button was now in his nose!!
OMFG!! You should have seen me. I paniced and tried shaking Jack as if that would magically dislodge it while Owen ran to get some tweezers. I fumbled around getting the torch and wound it up (it's one of those wind up torches) so I could have a look for the button. I could see it but it was fairly high up his nostril. So we all jumped into the car and up to the hospital we go.
Did you know that a button up the nose means immediate attention in an ER? We went straight through and one of the ER doctors had a look. He bought in a collegue to check out the situation and discuss options. They decided to try tweezers firstly so I had to hold my poor baby down while they tried unsuccessfully to remove the button with tweezers a couple of times. Jack was pretty upset by the end of this as you can imagine and had a bloody nose. So off the doctors went to discuss other options.
The next thing they decided to try was the "blow" technique. I had to block off Jack's good nostril with my finger, completely cover his mouth with mine and then blow like crazy!! Unfortunately it didn't work either but apparently is generally a pretty reliable nose/object removal method (a tip for you Mum's out there).
The next technique they tried was inserting a catherter in Jack's nose and then inserting saline into the catherter to make a balloon behind the button to try and pull it out. It didn't work and was again quite traumatic for poor Jack. After this attempt they could no longer visualise the button in his nasal passage so off we went to get x-rays.
The x-rays were pretty cool to look at. They were a front and a side view of Jack's head and sholder area. Unfortunately the doctor wasn't sure that he could see the button then either so the ear, nose and throut specialist was called.
The ENT guy came down and was able to see the button but it was now right at the back of Jack's nasal cavity so he explained that in these circumstance and especially with this age group that he would only have one attempt and if unsuccessful we would have to discuss anaesthesia and removal in surgery!! So Jack was wrapped in a sheet and held as still as possible while the ENT doctor had a try at removal. Unfortunately it didn't work either. The ENT doctor explained that Jack would have to be anaethised and that they would take him up to surgery to remove the offending button. We were asked when he'd last eaten etc. and the ENT doctor said he would speak to the anaethitist and ask whether Jack would be able to go to surgery straight away or whether he would have to fast for awile beforehand.
So we were left in the ER consultation room while the doctors went to contact the anaethitist. Obviously Owen and I were pretty stressed by this stage although apart from the removal attempts Jack had been happy, bright and charming all night. In fact, we read the notes on his chart and he had acually been descibed as "an adorable 3 year old boy presenting with a 1cm button inserted in his nose". So there we were, making plans for me to go home and get changed (since I had blood and stuff on my shirt) and then for a trip to surgery and an overnight stay in hospital when Jack gave two little coughs and then held out his hand and said, "Look Mummy, here's my button". He had coughed it out of his mouth!!
Well you should have seen me. It was like we'd won the lottery. I raced out of the room to try to find our doctors to show them the button.
So there you go. We were discharged with no complications. The relief was immense!!
The hospital staff were all so wonderful especially our ER doctor. We were very grateful for the treatment we received. And I was so proud of our precious boy. He was so polite throughout the entire ordeal and answered all the questions that were asked of him. He truly is a precious, special, intelligent beautiful boy.
So here you go...a photo of the offending button!!

Anyhoo, thanks for reading. I'd better go and get dinner started.

Cheers