esophageal distress

That's probably what the 911 dispatcher would have told the responding paramedics if we had actually called 911. It sounds better than, "There's a lady with a chip stuck in her throat. Yes, she can breathe. But the chip is really sharp and is scraping her esophagus." Hence the term I concocted, esophageal distress.

Dinner started out perfectly fine. I made tostadas and was chowing down when I prematurely swallowed a piece of tostada shell. Have you ever taken too big of a bite or not properly chewed your food, then it slowly makes its way down your esophagus in an unpleasant manner? And the whole time you're thinking, "Ugh, just get down there!" Well imagine that happening but with a too-large-to-make-it-safely-down piece of tortilla chip. Ouch. To the max.

As this renegade chip scraped its way down my esophagus, I couldn't help but 1) freak out, thinking, "What if I have to go to the ER, or what if this never goes away?" and 2) cry. Talking was painful. Coughing was almost out of the question. Drinking water wasn't really helping. It was too deep to try to fish out. Evan suggested I eat something in an effort to force the chip down. That was the last thing I wanted to do. I was afraid any other food I ate would just stack itself on top of the chip, creating a bigger problem.

Evan ran to the computer to google the following phrase: sharp chip stuck in throat. After one lady's account of getting a fish bone stuck in her throat with a subsequent plea for help, Evan discovered that drinking water, gentle throat massage, and eating a banana could help. After initially refusing to eat anything, I opted for the banana.

Lo and behold it worked! Bye bye chip o' death! Hello rest of my tostada!