why I will never eat Gobstoppers again...

Today was quite the day. As I sit here on the couch trying to figure out how to explain it, I can't quite find the right words to describe it. I'll try.

Today I choked.

Literally.

Everyone at my school has been at a conference the past couple of days. It was a good one with lots of sharing and personal stories. Lots of tissues and deep, meaningful conversations as we learn how to build relationships with our students. It has been a cathartic experience.

It has been a lot of time sitting in a chair, though. So today I brought some Gobstoppers with me. I thought it would entertain me to have something to chew and suck on during the meetings.

Not too smart.

While our presenter is in the middle of a really personal story about her past, my GS broke apart in my mouth, just as I inhaled.

I'm sitting there and all of a sudden, I have this huge piece of jawbreaker in my windpipe. It hurt. But strangely enough I could breathe. So I'm sitting there with this thing in there and each time I swallowed it bobbled up or down, but it didn't go anywhere. But I could breathe. Strange. I thought to myself "if I get up and go to the bathroom, I can probably hack it up, but then I'll be alone. What if I can't get it up?"

The presenter is still walking around in front of me and I'm sitting close to the front. I figure I'll wait until she finishes her story and then I'll have another teacher go with me.

And then it happened.

I breathed wrong and coughed.

Then I couldn't breathe. I started hacking and gagging. Right in the middle of this intense moment with the trainer. Matt, our IT guy, is next to me and he turns and looks at me.

I managed to squeak out "help."

And he's up. And I'm gagging and choking and am only sucking in a little air and the jawbreaker is moving around in my windpipe, but not really coming up. It just keeps coming up far enough to make me gag and then moving down again.

Matt leans me over and I'm still gagging. He has his hands around me, ready if I completely stop coughing. But leaned over I somehow managed to cough hard enough and it popped up into my mouth. "It's out." I whispered.

Well, by now I'm crying and shaking and every eye in the room is on me. The presenter has stopped. The world has stopped.

People hand me tissues and water and Matt looks like he's gonna have a heart attack. I felt that way a little bit. The presenter asks me if I'm all right. Yes, I am. They clap for me and for Matt, the hero.

I kinda miss the next 15 minutes while in a daze. Every time I cough, eyes turn towards me. And my windpipe realllllllllly hurts. A couple times when I coughed, I tasted blood, so I know I scratched the lining with my gobstopper. And it's still really sore. Can't do anything about it really, cause it's only designed for air. It doesn't hurt to swallow or drink, so it's a strange feeling to have that pipe bother me. That isn't the only that normally bothers us.

Someone followed me home in case I flaked out while I drove. As soon as I saw my husband I started crying. He asked me what was wrong. I told him I did a bad thing. Which isn't really the case, but I was really mortified that it happened in front of all those people.

That was my day. Please tell me yours was better.