Friday,
November 23, 2007

A day of accomplishment

And I went nowhere near one of the big box stores -- go me! Instead, I headed down to Hancock's to pick up some nice trigger fabric for a duffle bag. See, Lyndon bought an absolutely drool-worthy Australian bush coat at the state fair in September, and will be wearing it in England in a couple of weeks. The seller recommended that the coat be stored rolled up, so the honey asked me if I could make a small duffle bag (I have no idea if I'm spelling that correctly) for said coat. The bag had to be thin enough that it could be folded and stuffed into a coat pocket, and have long enough drawcords that it could be slung over a shoulder while loaded.

So off to Hancock's I went, and a couple of hours later he now has a sturdy buff-colored duffle bag for the jacket and I need to send my HS geometry teacher a note of apology for assuming that I would never need to know how to figure out the diameter of a circle (bottom of the bag, you see). I also have some lovely rose, maroon and white fabric and a pattern for a very nice tunic, which will probably be made sometime over the weekend.

Well, that was...well, damn scary, to be honest

I finished the duffle bag early, so I decided to start working on the tunic tonight.

I used pins that had been kept in a small container that must've gotten some lint or small flecks of thread in it at some point. As I was pinning the pattern to the fabric (Yes, I hold pins between my lips as I pin. Yes, I know it's stupid. No, I won't be doing it again), I accidentially sucked in -- something. Big enough that I could feel it as it went down my airway, small enough that repeated coughing wasn't bringing it up.

I went to the sink and kept coughing, bringing up mucus as I did and feeling slightly worried. I decided to try and breathe in a lungful of air VERY slowly, in order to not dislodge the particle, then give a really strong cough and hopefully bring it up.

Which is when my throat abruptly went into laryngospasm. Allow me to cut and paste a definition:

"In medicine, laryngospasm is an uncontrolled/involuntary muscular contraction (spasm) of the laryngeal cords. The condition typically lasts less than 30 or 60 seconds, and causes a partial blocking of breathing in, while breathing out remains easier. It may be triggered when the voice box or the area of the windpipe below the voicebox detects the entry of water or other substance. It is characterized by a high pitched scream-like sound, and might be frightening for some to witness."

No, really? It's frigging frightening for the victim, believe me. As my windpipe abruptly closed to the size of a coffee stirrer and I stood there clutching the sink and fighting for air I thought, "I can't die from inhaling a piece of lint -- it's a STUPID way to die," followed by, "I can't call 911 -- I don't have health insurance right now. Relax, breathe slowly, see if that helps."

And it did, and the spasm relaxed, and after more hacking, coughing and a small glass of water I seem to have dislodged the whatever it was. My throat is still sore from all the coughing, though, and I really, REALLY don't want to go through something like that ever again.

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