daphnem
25-06-17, 19:41
I've had a pretty awful few days, and yesterday (Saturday) morning I was eating and starting crying whilst doing so (lol)- I was eating a rice salad thing and as I started crying I quite sharply inhaled, as you do when you cry, and I sort of felt a bit of rice go down the wrong hole. I coughed and panicked a bit and spat out what I had in my mouth but the thing is I'm really unsure as to whether the piece (literally just one grain of rice, I think) came up or whether I inhaled it. When it happened I was almost positive I hadn't coughed it up, and I am almost certain I didn't swallow it as it went down as I breathed in, no swallowing involved- I started to panic a bit thinking it'd gone down my windpipe and then googled it (which I don't think was a massively stupid thing to do because it's genuinely something that could be an issue) and a lot of articles about aspiration pneumonia came up, essentially saying if food or foreign objects get into your lungs, they can get infected and cause a form of pneumonia. I didn't want to call the NHS number because I was so frightened for the whole of yesterday- right now I feel quite calm about the whole situation and I'm not sure whether I should go to the doctor tomorrow as I'd planned on doing. I feel as though this could either be something that is very serious or something that will just make me seem like an idiot. I am seventeen and a healthy weight, no real health problems touch wood, only smoke very occasionally in social situations- I had a cough right when it happened but not really since, I tried for a long time yesterday to cough up this one grain of rice but to no avail, and I do not currently have a cough. My throat feels a little bit sore, maybe because of all the coughing I did yesterday, and I feel very slightly cold-y. I do feel slightly short of breath but no more than usual, as I've been suffering with shortness of breath for a while now which I think is down to anxiety. Today I have been out and walking around with no issue and feel normal, touch wood. Some people say that if you think you've inhaled food you should get checked out as it can be serious, but then others say that aspiration only really occurs in people with existing conditions or older people- however, one girl I came across on Twitter had said that her sister once inhaled a bit of bacon and it got stuck in her lungs and she had to have an operation- basically, I am quite scared about this and am wondering whether it's something I should still be worried about?