My iPhone Got Dropped in the Toilet

Did I tell you this? I think I only told Facebook. Last week in Sydney, in an effort to coax Hank to sit on the potty (traveling toddler's constipation, whole 'nother story), I told him he could play a game on my phone while he sat there. Because why? Because I am dumb as hair. Because I ignored decades of experience with HOW THE WORLD WORKS. So I totally deserved what I got.

Which was that Hank dropped my iPhone in the toilet. My iPhone. In the toilet.

Matt was supervising the potty situation, and all of a sudden I heard a big commotion and Matt saying, "Noooooo!" I rushed into the room, and when I entered, the patient had been plucked from the toity, and Matt was holding it between his palms, towelling it briskly like it was the runty newborn puppy in 101 Dalmations.

I seized it and then did what anyone would do. I turned it off right away and then updated my Facebook status. My cry from the heart was:

Oh god y'all, my child just dropped my iPhone in the toilet. Even though it was
quickly rescued, I am filled with dread. (I turned it off promptly.) Anything to
do but just hope? And say ugly swear words?

Advice, anecdotes, and commiseration flowed in. I'm sharing it in case this happens to you--if you filter out the smartassery, it seems to be a compendium of everything I have ever heard about how to save a wet phone, and people are reporting a 100% success rate:

• Bag of rice for a week--works wonders.
• I've heard something about using cat litter to draw out the moisture from the phone (not from the child- unless you so choose).
• Is there an app for that? [Okay, that one made me laugh.]
• My friend says to air it for a few days. She jumped in a swimming pool with hers in her pocket (grabbing a child).
• I ran my old phone through the washing machine by accident. I let it dry for a week and it was ok. The iPhone has a "got-wet" sensor in it so Apple won't give you a new one for free.
• My niece's iPod got soaked after it was outside in a puddle during a rainstorm. i googled what to do and we put it in a bowl of rice to absorb the moisture for a few days. after this it worked just fine. i gave this advice to a friend who used it on his cell phone and it also worked.
• The other week Linc dropped his phone into the lake and we managed to find it at the bottom, in the sand, because the light was still on. He turned it off, dried it, and it's fine now!! Good luck ;)

So, in summary, the number one most important thing to do is to turn the phone off right away. Then take it apart as much as possible. With an iPhone, this is not much. But with a conventional cellphone, take the battery out. Then choose your drying method. I didn't have kitty litter, and I was going to do rice, but I didn't think much water could be inside, because it was a quick dunk and not a prolonged soak. (I would also worry about winding up with grains of rice and junk inside the phone.) So I opted for taking out the SIM card, sitting the phone, under a desk lamp, screen side up, and leaving it for three or four days.

Then I told myself that if it didn't work when I turned it on, I would move on with my life and buy a new iPhone 3GS. I cultivated an attitude of mental detachment, which gave me the courage to power it up. It worked, and I whooped, then I wiped it all over with a babywipe, 'cause that thing had been in the toilet.

So, that was a close one. My dad sat down in a hot tub with his phone in his pocket, and he dried it for a week and it was fine. I am surprised that those phones are so robust. Has this already happened to everyone else?