You have better luck than I did. Dropped one, guess where it went?
Removed engine, pulled the pan, removed lifter from crankcase, reinstalled pan, reinstalled engine...of course AFTER switching the cam (and intake manifold/gaskets). Simple job turned more complex-but that's how it goes sometimes.
So when you pull the cam and if one got bumped, what prevents a lifter from going into the oil pan?
And if that happened...pull the intake, plop a spare in and send it? The lifter in the pan shouldn’t get sucked into the pickup and is too heavy to get lifted up into the crank? Slap a big magnet on the bottom of the pan to hold it and carry on?