Stuck In My Throat
From a medical point of view the year 2014 has not been great.
Stuck in my throat, yet another incident
Too big to swallow
Here is another incident, it started on Thursday 3rd July at 6.30 pm. Eating a meal before going to see a show at the Young Vic I tried to swallow a piece of lamb that was too big and it got stuck in my throat.
A & E again
I could still breath but completely unable to swallow anything. Sit in your chair for a minute and don’t swallow your saliva. Now can you see my hideous situation. St Thomas’ A & E was nearby and that is where I pitched up at 9 in the evening. By 3 in the morning I was admitted to Guy’s hospital ENT.
I saw a doctor at 8.30 in the morning and the plan was to give me a general anesthetic and delicately extract the lump of meat out of my throat.
Plan B
Someone else then suggested a relaxant so the lump of meat would go down my esophagus and into my stomach. Good idea and I thought it had worked. Oh no, this lump of meat had gone d0wn my esophagus but not into my stomach. I still could not swallow.
I won’t go into the details except to say I was not a happy bunny. At 4 that afternoon a resolution. They sedated me, the surgeon sorted out the problem but my memory is sort of hazy. Now I do remember the nurse wheeling me back into the ward, boy did I feel relieved. I even ate a hospital meal that night.
Would I ever get home
Next morning, Saturday 5th July, by now it was 36 hours after the story began. At 9 in the morning I was told that I would be be discharged. I just needed a discharge note and some drugs from the pharmacy. I know the NHS is a bit slow at times. This was not complicated and I expected have left the hospital by lunchtime. Finally at 4.30 I had the drugs and a discharge note. Seven and a half hours of sitting around, I fiddled on my phone, was bored, frustrated and blocking a bed.
Someone does not like me
Now I expected to be back back at home by six but oh no there was another twist to the saga, the train journey. The train got to Hemel Hempstead and there it broke down. The passengers had to move from platform 3 to platform 1 and it is not a step-free station. Thank goodness some very kind people carried my Travelscoot up and down the stairs while I struggled along behind.
Supper
Finally I got home at 7 in the evening and I felt exhausted. Hospital beds are so uncomfortable, I do not have a good night’s sleep, it was a truly traumatic 48 hours.
5th July is The Wife’s birthday, Daughter One and a friend came home to cook a meal. It was Tapas, the best Tapas ever. I retired to bed at 10 that evening and slept for 13 hours.
Was this accident a result of my hunger or my multiple sclerosis? I think it was my hunger.
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