A little embarrased

I have a story to share today! Many of my close family and friends know I have a problem… I have a small throat. Nathan says it’s all in my head and I psych myself out. But I believe I have a small throat. Throughout my life I have choked on my food multiple times. I could be eating steak for dinner with my parents and end up with a piece stuck in my throat. My first time at Chipotle I choked on a piece of steak…It was also one of my first dates with Nathan. It’s not only meat…I choke on pills. I have to have chewable vitamins because I can’t swallow the pills. Sudafed…no way can I swallow those honkers. So today I went to school, no surprise there. However to my surprise the headache that I usually get at 4pm when I am at school decided to come at 10 am…and decided to stay. Now I didn’t have any medicine so I decided to instead drink lots of water. I read somewhere that drinking water can cure headaches. Not mine. My headache decided to stay all stinking day. I couldn’t get anything done. So right before my 4pm class I asked my friend if she had any medicine. She gave me an Excedrin the size of my thumbnail. Not that big. However, I hesitated; I thought it looked a little big for my small throat. But I had a headache since 10 am so I decided that it wasn’t too big for me. Boy was I wrong. I took a big gulp of water with the pill and then I was in trouble. The pill became stuck in my throat. Now usually when this happens I am able to cough it up pretty quickly. That was not the case. This pill did not want to go up or down. So I start to cough. And I should remind you that my Linguistics class is about to start; my class members are filing in and I am coughing up the water I just drank. Soon the class gets quiet as they realize that I am coughing, turning red, and crying. Embarrassing, I know. My teacher comes over and tries to calm me down. But it looks pretty bad. I am now coughing up saliva and I don’t want anything in my mouth. I try to drink more water but it just makes it worse. Luckily I am breathing, but it hurts to breathe and my breathing sounds crackly…it sounded gross.

While I am choking one of my friends gets on the phone with student emergency, while another classmate calls their mom who is a nurse while another friend calls Nathan to come get me. But I can’t concentrate on any of them. I was in so much pain and I didn’t want to do anything to make it worse. My hands started to get numb and I was getting really shaky. Soon the campus police/maybe a paramedic or else they were both police officers…their uniforms all look the same and I wasn’t paying attention to tell the difference, showed up and tried to help me in the classroom. Eventually, they take me outside and grab my stuff. My teacher came out to see if I was ok…my classmates were thinking about canceling class, which I told her not to do. Seriously, how embarrassing would it be if they canceled my class because I choked on a pill? They finally get me to eat a big piece of bread and more water. Finally after about 10 min…Seriously, the pill was stuck for at least 10 min…it went down. However, my throat was SO sore that it felt like it was still in there. I called Nathan to see if he had already left worked to pick me up…but my amazing husband knew I wouldn’t want to take the train home after that ordeal so he decided to still pick me up from school! He is too good! The policeman then drove me to the student health center where the Dr could check me just to be safe. And yes I got to ride in a police car…the front seat to be precise. So the Dr. took a look at me and told me I could take Tylenol for the pain (like I really want to take another pill) and to come back on Monday just to be safe. The police drove me back up the hill to campus and I was able to make it for the last 15 min of class. My teacher cried when she saw me. I guess my whole choking fit scared her. Nathan picked me up right after class and drove through Wendy’s for a chocolate frosty. He even made me clam chowder and watched letters to Juliet with me. He is a keeper! I am doing a lot better than I was earlier, although my throat is still sore, I feel like I have heart burn and I am still a little shaky. But overall, I am good and that’s what matters. What a long story!
PS: I still have my headache :(

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