Rainy Day

I earnt myself a trip to hospital by laughing with three pins in my mouth. I kept that X - Ray in my sewing room for years afterwards to remind me not to do that ever again. And my voice still gets scratchy - they ended up in my voice box. This was over 20 years ago, and I have not done it since. Ouch.

christina bennett

That is Funny...Me too
christina(chrissy)

Miss Mona

This is a funny storry, but semi long, but not funny at the time.

I was at a quilt show and was hanging a quilt. Put 4 of the long 2" pins in my mouth, ball first. Pinned one in place and leaned my head back to find placement of another pin and the pins slid down my throat. Was able to stop and spit out 2 immediately but the other one went on down. An ambulance was called.

I had a nice trip to the hospital with the sirens . I was afraid to talk or swallow and had to go to the bathroom. Oh!! Did I have to go to the bathroom. It was a horrible trip. After I got to the hospital I talked enough to tell them I swalled a pin but at the moment had to go, had to go bad. Of course they said minimal movement, I had to use a bed pan but stay laying down. Take the word of someone who knows, you cannot use a bed pan while laying down in a bed and actually get your urine into the pan. You not only mess up the bed, the floor around the bed, but the clothes you are wearing.

It took about 6 hours at the hospital with them discussing several ways to reach the pin to get it out. They tried slipping a magnet down my throat, that didn't work. Finally they put me out and used a loop, that didn't work. Ended up putting a type of pliers down the throad and was able to remove the pin.

I woke up before they finished removing all the instruments down the throat, started chocking, then throwing up, all over the newly changed bed and nurses, but they got the pin out. It had already gone through the stomach, I have a picture. By this time I was quite hoarse. The nurse had called my husband and told him I swallowed a pin and to bring a change of clothing. This is another story in intself trying to talk and explain to my husband on how swallowing a pin needed a change of clothing.

To this day I never put a pin in my mouth.

Lori L

You actually posted this in response to my comment about germs in your mouth and then sticking yourself with a needle/pin. Great idea reposting in it's own thread! Well worth it to give the warning to everyone. The visual I get just reading your post is.......OMG! And that's from an old ER nurse LOL

JACRN

I have 3 pincushions. A regular one, one attached to my scrap bag, and a finger one.

Butterflyblue

Yes, sometimes my husband comes up for a kiss when I'm sewing and then backs off because I'm "booby trapped".

I've been trying to break myself of the habit of putting pins in my mouth even that way, though, because I realized that they drop on the floor and I pick them up and put them in the pincushion, then later they're in my mouth...and who knows what's on that floor? I'm probably building up immunity to all kinds of things, though. ;-)

But seriously, thanks to the OP for telling this story. It's something I had never even considered happening.

Joyce

When I don't have a pincushion handy I always just stick the pins through my shirt where you would pin a corsage.
Family would always make fun of me when I would forget to take them out when I was finished.

ClairVoyantQuilter

I think it's one of those things we as mothers may have told our kids but never think it will happen to us. Fortunately, I'm something of a germaphobe so it never occurs to me to put them in my mouth LOL

But I might mention as long as we're discussing odd hazards, when my oldest was in 6th grade, a girl in his class was home dining with her parents on spaghetti . . .she slurped the spaghetti as kids often do and sucked a noodle into her windpipe. Tragically, she choked to death . . .so just one more thing to worry about . . .

BRenea

I try SO HARD not to do that, but I still catch myself sometimes. I have a small ring pincushion (the base of it is a plastic soda bottle cap) that I wear on my left thumb, it's very convenient and stays with me as I move around from cutting table to machine to ironing board.