Panicking!! Aspiration pneumonia

[ilovebigbirds]

Omg. I am really scared right now.

I was eating cookies and drinking lemonade with mint earlier and during the meal I inhaled a little and felt a sharp pain in my chest. I started panicking. The pain subsided but now I am scared that I actually aspirated on my meal without choking and now will get aspiration pneumonia... Some say that aspiration pneumonia is only seen in the frail elderly but idk. Also normal body response is to cough violently before you even understand that you have aspirated, but what if the piece I inhaled was so small that it didn't trigger coughing just the pain??

[.Poppy.]

The piece of food would have had to be incredibly small for you to not cough if it went down your windpipe. And if you do swallow something that small, it's a non issue.

Aspiration pneumonia is most common if an individual is elderly, like you said, and/or has some sort of swallowing disorder. It can also happen if you were to start drowning while swimming and are unable to get all of the water out of your lungs via coughing. It does not happen to an otherwise healthy individual via eating cookies and drinking lemonade, not without a lot of very painful coughing first.

You're fine.

[ilovebigbirds]

Thank you for your reply!

The pain has completely gone by now although I sometimes feel a tingling that might want me to cough once. I don't know if that's related. Someone told me I could've irritated my esophagus, I hope they are right.

I just keep thinking 'what I am unlucky. What if I actually have a weak immune system (I have warts). What if...'