Sad but True

It may seem pathetic and even a bit impossible but it's true - I choked on a garbanzo bean last Monday. Not in my airway. I could breathe just fine. The offending food was lodged in my esophagus (making me gag) for more than four hours, three of which were while I sat in the ER being tortured. Tortured by a very sweet nurse and a fairly handsome doctor (in training?). First, the nurse couldn't find my vein to get in an IV and caused a bit of pain as she probed around. Then, we had to wait for two hours to see if the muscle relaxant would free the bean (keep in mind that I'm gagging and can't swallow this whole time). And then, oh god it makes me sick to remember, the real torture began. They sprayed my nose and throat with benzocane, making me convulse. I don't know if it was the high pressure, the cold, or the medicine itself but I thought to myself "maybe this is what they do to prisoners - there's no outward proof of torture but it makes you want to agree to anything to make it stop." Then they put the camera down my nose. He had me sit upright although I was constantly gagging and there was no where for all the saliva to go except out my mouth and all over me (humiliating to say the least). But the worst part was that the benzocane hadn't really worked. It hurt like hell to have the camera being put down my nose. I cried. I gagged. I cursed profusely when they took it out briefly. I wanted to either kill someone or die or at least go home and spend the rest of my life not being able to swallow. John asked me which was worse, this or giving birth. This. Oh please god, don't do this to me again.
They eventually gave up (having seen nothing). The ENT came in, knocked me out, and used a little puff of air to knock the garbanzo bean down and took a biopsy to try and determine what caused me to choke in the first place. He thinks I may have had an allergic reaction because my throat was so swollen but I had been gagging for 4 hours so of course it was swollen. We'll find out next week.
Anyway, I survived (but if this happens again and that doctor comes near me I'm going home and you'll have to get used to seeing me with a spit bag).