I Almost Died!

So I almost choked on some pills yesterday morning. I use a large Tervis to take my pills, and I’m not sure why I do this. I should use a smaller glass, because I’m clumsy and don’t know how to drink out of a big girl cup.

Unfortunately, this is not my first time almost choking to death on pills. When my husband and I were dating, we went to a nice restaurant after work one night. I was having stomach problems at the time (not unusual with my medical problems), and I was having to take these large horse pills four times a day. I had to take them before meals. So we were at this restaurant, and I had to take this pill before I ate. I tried to swallow it and started gagging. The gagging was enough to draw attention from onlookers and enough to scare my future husband over to my side of the booth. He wrapped his arms around my trunk and started performing the Heimlich maneuver. Thankfully, I wasn’t really choking, just gagging, because the pill was lodged in my esophagus. Eventually I was able to swallow it enough that I didn’t feel it every time I swallowed. I switched to the liquid version of the medicine after that.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was taking my probiotics with my Tervis. They’re not even that big, and they’re capsules, but I have to take TWO of them. Uh oh. Same thing happens. They’re stuck in my throat, and every time I swallow I start gagging. And I can’t get them down. My daughters are in the living room on their tablets, totally oblivious to the fact that their mom might be dying. Between episodes of gagging (remember, I’m not choking, so I can talk, speak, breathe), I yell to my daughter to get my phone. I think that there’s a chance I could start choking, so I was prepping for my six year old to have to call 911 for me. I drink more water, keep swallowing, and eventually the pills go down. But at this point, I gagged so much that my throat and stomach muscles hurt. And I learned my lesson that I need to teach my daughters more about what to do in an emergency. Especially since they have a sickie mom who can’t swallow pills.