I was about to sleep early this evening because I need to get up early tomorrow morning to do some errands. But somehow, I felt hungry and decided to fry some Salmon steak in the fridge. I bought the Pink Salmon yesterday in Farmer's Market (480 pesos for 1 kilo).
Pink Salmon is my all-time favorite fish steak. It is also very expensive so I only buy a kilo every month. What I usually do is just to fry it in olive oil at low heat. When the pinkish color of the meat turns to a bit brownish, I remove the fish steak from the pan and garnish it with calamansi, basil leaves, sesame seeds, and Tabasco.
This evening, however, my fine and enjoyable dining turned into one of the most painful experiences in my life. Halfway through eating my steak, while savoring the juicy flesh inside my salivated mouth and swallowing it in my throat, I felt that a large fish bone (tinik), has lodged inside my throat. I immediately felt the pain and the discomfort, and so my first instinct was to swallow a glassful of water.
I drank water as fast as I could, hoping that it would dislodge the fish bone. It didn't. I filled in another glass full and gobbled it up, but the bone is still stuck in my throat. My mother told me to swallow whole bananas. I must have eaten a six or seven pieces, but the evil bone is still stuck in my throat.
Next, I tried swallowing rice straight, again to no avail. The bone seemed to be lodging deeper and deeper into my throat. This is certainly one of the most uncomfortable feelings in my life.
With a firm determination to get the bone out of my throat, I extended my tongue in front of the bathroom mirror, took a deep breath, and inserted my right index finger deep into my throat, hoping that I could drag the bone out. I tell you this is the most unpleasant thing to do. As soon as my finger touched my esophagus, I belched. Several times.
I felt weak and saw my face turn red and tears dripping from my eyes. But the obnoxious bone was still there. I repeated the procedure, and I belched again. My mother was now very worried about me, because she saw that I spat some blood, meaning, that the bone had now pierced a vein in my throat. I was now in a knelt position in the bathroom.
By now, all my family knew that I had a fish bone lodged inside in my throat. My father, a superstitious man, said that we should call Inang, my mother's kumare. Inang was born a suhi (someone who-by birth-was believed to cure someone with a fish bone pierced inside the throat). Although she lives two rides away from our house, a call immediately sent her to rescue me. I was now very weak, and still throwing up.
Inang massaged my throat saying that the massage could easily remove the fish bone. I thought that I better believe her. Minutes passed, and the pain and discomfort was still there. Obviously, the massage was not doing anything effective to remove the bone from my throat. After 30 awful minutes, I said I want to go to the hospital. Inang understood it, saying the doctors can be able to help. I thank her for her efforts.
At the hospital, the doctor put me into the emergency room. She looked inside my throat and said that she saw the bone, and that it was very deep. She told me that she would get the bone out in a few minutes. She then inserted a long scissor-like thongs in my throat (I tell you, you'll never want this procedure). As soon as she pulled out the thongs from my throat, I threw up.
The Doctora then held the thong in front of my eyes, and there I saw an inch long fish bone. The one that had pestered me for more than an hour. I held it in my hand, and it's as hard as a nail, no wonder it was so painful! I felt great that my throat is back to normal. When I swallow, there was no pain anymore. I felt so glad, I would have hugged the Doctora. The procedure happened in only 2 minutes!
The bill came. I have to pay 700 pesos all in all. But man, I would pay anything not to experience a lodging bone in my throat again.
And so, if you happen to experience this, don't do anything that I have done prior to going to the hospital. A doctor can easily dislodge the fish bone in 2 minutes!
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