I had a strange experience at school today. It beats out the time I almost fainted (my first year teaching) for scariest school memory. The short version: my throat closed up and I couldn't breath for a minute or two. Disclaimer: I'm fine now!
The long version: During read-aloud, the back of my throat irritated all of a sudden. Maybe a bug flew in while I read? (All the plants means we have some annoying tiny flies buzzing around). I took a drink of water, felt better, and continued reading, thinking nothing of it. I taught English and turned my students loose to work. A few minutes into worktime, my throat got awful scratchy and when I tried to breathe, my airway instantly shrunk. Thinking a drink of water might help, I walked to my desk, the struggle to breathe getting worse and worse those few steps. Now I was gasping for air and couldn't talk. It felt like my throat was completely closed. "I can't breathe," I wheezed to my class. They stared at me not sure what to do.
The whole time this was going on, my brain cruised 100mph: Okay, stay calm, you've been through things like this before. Not this bad, but still. It'll get better. Sit down. Take a sip of water. Okay that didn't help. Try holding your breath. Okay, that didn't help. Stay calm, stay calm, freaking out is going to make it worse. Okay, what else can I do? Hey! One of the kids has an inhaler in the first aid drawer, that would open my airways probably. I only got the drawer open when the 6th grade boy asked, "Want me to get Mr. E?" Since I couldn't talk, I nodded.
Back to full throttle brain: I hope I don't pass out... What are they going to do then? Call an ambulance? Oh geez, what a disaster. Who's going to watch my kids? It's going to wreck the whole day! Suddenly another thought popped in my head: You could try breathing through your nose, just like that book you read this summer. Take a deep nose breath all the way to the bottom of your lungs so you go past whatever junk is going on in your throat. And guess what. By the grace of God it worked. I could breathe totally fine, a full lungful of air no problem. A bunch more deep inhales through the nose and the swelling in my throat went down. By the time Mr. E arrived, I could talk and my throat was a bit scratchy, but otherwise back to normal. The whole incident lasted maybe five minutes.
Best guess is, I had an allergic reaction to the bug 30min later. My throat stayed fine the rest of the day, no other flareups. It's a little tender now, but I'm drinking some soothing tea and resting my voice.
My kids handled it fine and I think most of them forgot about the incident until I mentioned it as my low of the day. Mr. E didn't forget. He stopped by to check on me at least twice more during the day. I was fine every time! Eesh, that is not an experience I want to have again.
To end on a positive note, spelling with the 7-8th graders was again, almost fun today! The orange group had a list of words using the prefix "semi" and they had to make sentences of their list words. One boy had so much fun, he came up with more semi words. "Hey Noah, want to play basketball on a semibasketball court of the gym?" Later, I caught him flexing his abs and pounding on them. He noticed me observing and explained, "I have semi-abs. They're pretty good, but they're going to get better."
On another positive note, God blessed us again at our Sunday bake sale! We made exactly what we needed to cover the cost for everyone. We needed to make $120 this time, and people donated $133. Thank you Lord!
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