SAVED

As most people who know me know, I hate hard candy. Besides not being anything remotely pallet satisfying to me, I have always had a total fear of choking, something I was just discussing on Thanksgiving Day when presented with some French hard candies.

Today we ran to Costco and then I did trader Joes run. Nothing eventful at all. We were hanging around the house. E called me and I was talking to her when the phone died out. Just as I was waiting for her to call me back, I saw my vitamins and figured I would pop one while waiting.

I have been taking vitamins for years. It seems the more organic they are, the horsier they become. But like most things, you grow used to the size of the pill and know what to expect. I have grown so accustomed to these particular, horse sized pills that I typically don’t drink anything until afterwards – I just pop one.

As soon as the pill hit my throat, I knew it was bad. It fell right onto my windpipe and I immediately felt the air stop, the blood rush to my face and panic setting in. I was in our kitchen and Alex was in the living room. I drank a little water but that only seemed to exasperate the situation. Those seconds felt like an eternity and since I could not speak, moan or scream and was too panicked to move, I started hitting the counter with my hands as hard as I could.

Alex wasted no time as I know he saw my panic as I was banging like a crazy person on the counter. Without a moment to lose, he hit me on the back and then grabbed me and performed the Heimlich maneuver. I felt the pill come up and threw it up in to the sink. And then I breathed in like I had never done before. Then I cried.

I have no idea what I would have done had he been down the hall in the shower or worse, not been there at all.

It’s been a few hours and every time I think about it, I get choked up – the “what if’s.” One of my worst fears WAS the worst. Much worse, it got me thinking about folks who take these monster pills and have no one there to help them in cases like this one.

Today it was scary. I am SO shaky and freaked out but my amazing boyfriend was my hero. Today I am so thankful.