It must be just a coincidence – two different boys from two totally different places came into the emergency department at 9 AM today after having swallowed a coin each which got stuck in their throats!
Luckily they were both very stable. After the Xrays three of us doctors went into the special Xray room to take it out under fluoroscopic visualisation. I hadnt seen one being done before – you put in a catheter which the kid swallws and once the tip is beyond the coin, we inflate a balloon at it’s tip and yank the catheter out which results in the ballon pulling out the coin as it comes out! Quite simple actually.
The first kid (the younger one – 6 years) was quite sweet and co-operated quite well.
I was allowed to start on the second kid (an 8 year old guy), but man…. was he scared. He literally jumped and clamped his mouth shut. I had to give the catheter to my senior Jyoteesh who struggled a bit too, but managed to put it in when the guy briefly relented. A few seconds later the coin literally flew out of the mouth as the ballon was inflated, a check Xray done and the catheter was yanked out! The boy seemed bewlidered that it took such a short time and was actually painless. Raghram, the surgery registrar, calmly washed the coin and then playfully ‘offered’ it back to the guy challenging him to swallow it again!!! You should have seen the look of terror on his face as he refused to even touch the coin again… leave alone swallow it!!
All’s well that ends well they say right!!

Anyway it got me thinking about what we do with Jesus. We refuse to hand over our sins to Him as we think the process will be painful and intolerable. We struggle, close up and refuse. Finally when we relent, the process is much more pleasant – the more we cooperate, the easier it is! And when we’re exposed to the same sin again – we find it revolting!!!
That’s my lesson for the day!