Monday, October 16, 2006

A Miserable Life

Okay folks, I don't usually blog about these sorts of subjects, but it's 3:26 am in the morning, I can't sleep, and poor Sarah is worried sick of me. About four days ago I ate some popcorn, and ever since then I have had this feeling like something was stuck in the back of my throat.

The first few days I assumed it was related to the cold I was getting over, so I medicated it with some good old NyQuil. Works every time. Yesterday I started thinking this wasn't cold related and starting thinking about what, exactly, could be causing the sensation... that's when I remembered the popcorn.

Turns out this isn't an uncommon problem. Look, someone has even blogged about it before. What's funny about this persons post is that it is a near identical story to my trials and tribulations... drinking tons of fluids, gaggin, scraping, gargling... induced vomiting. Pretty much anything I can think of. So far nothing works.

The only thing that gives me hope is a comment on the blog from a self-identified speech therapist. S/he writes
Everyone has a little flap in their throat that is connected to the very back base part of the tongue. This is called the epiglottis. The epiglottis together with the base of the tongue creat[sic] a little V-shaped groove just as you come over the back of the tongue. Food can get caught here, especially if the food is dry, small or oddly shaped (the hull of a popcorn kernel). Usually it will go away with time or drinking liquids.

My guess is that it did dislodge sometime through all your efforts to clear it. It likely sat there for a little while, which may cause a small irritation. That combined with you hacking, digging, and gagging likely irritated it more, creating a sensation that somethings there. Worse case senario[sic], the kernal permanently planted in your throat and is going to sprout popcorn babies!
So, there you have it... I've (a) made it worse, (b) may grow popcorn babies.

I looked through some of the original posters stuff, she complains about the kernel for several posts until this fateful message.

So now what?

No comments: