The Unfortunate Events of Brenna: My near-death-by-choking experience

Ever since I was little, I have had a problem with chewing on things that are not edible. In my life so far, I have swallowed two quarters, a heart-shaped locket, and a hard-boiled egg.

First, I will explain that I had no intention of swallowing any of these, only the hard-boiled egg that only went halfway down my throat because my mom had to dig the rest out. Talk about seeing your life flash before your eyes. I think I was seeing white light along with tears from crying. I was only seven or eight-years old at that time.

The other incidents were more of an accident. The first quarter I had swallowed was when I was with a friend, and her mom driving to the pool. I had candy in one hand and change in the other. Without looking I threw what I thought was my candy into my mouth and instead of tasting it, I just immediately gulped it down. It actually went down easily unlike the second quarter.

So this was a very stupid reasoning for swallowing the second quarter, because I was trying to show my friend how I had swallowed the first one by accident. So as I was showing her, I started laughing and threw the quarter in my mouth not meaning to swallow it. This time, the quarter wasn’t going down. I went into panic mode.

I didn’t have a drink with me so she asked her mom and I tried to force the quarter down with Sonic drink. It’s not as easy as it seems to sip out of a straw while choking on a quarter. I finally swallowed the quarter that felt more like a rock and took deep breaths.

The last near-death by choking incident was on a bus in elementary school. I was sitting next to another friend and we were talking about my necklace. It was a heart locket, and I was borrowing it from my sister. I was trying to open the clasp to see if there was a miniature picture inside, but it wouldn’t budge.

Then came the brilliant idea to open it up with my teeth. Just as I was opening it, the bus hit a huge bump, and down went the locket. You might be thinking there was a chain or something holding the locket, but I took it off to open the locket, so all hopes of getting it back were gone. And no, I did not find any of my swallowed objects.

On the bright side, I have come a long way since I was a kid and choke on foods less often, although I still seem to subconsciously stick things in my mouth. I will be drinking pop out of a can and before I know it, I’ve pulled the tab off and it’s in my mouth. That also happens with bottle rings. Sometimes I catch myself and think how stupid I was to do that and other times, my friends have to tell me what I just did.

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