Dont panic, have a sense of humor.

Elisa and I were sitting down to a late dinner after her choir practice tonight. I was served soup with chicken legs, pumpkin, potato, green beans, etc, a very traditional Chilean stew.

At the first bite, I began choking. I had accidentally spooned a small bone into my mouth and even though I was trying to spit it out, it ended up passing-on. I had a chicken bone lodged in my throat.

I was choking, but the kind of choking where you can still breathe. I can't think of any other word for pseudo-choking, so "choking" will have to do.

I know you are all very worried right now, "Oh no! Cori was CHOKING!". And yes, it hurt. It wasnt a comfortable feeling and I'm sure this has happened to you all.

I think you can see how me choking was a problem. Not only was I unable to communicate because i had a chicken bone in my throat, but I didnt know the spanish words to communicate WHAT was happening to me. (ie. "choke" or "bone")

Rodrigo thought I had burned my throat. I think I appeared to be ok because I was still talking and breathing. But I continued to cough and Elisa was very worried. She began by hitting my back and then when that didnt work, she ran me into the bathroom.

Elisa's parents, Haydee and Sergio, were in their bed at the time watching the news. Elisa frantically shouted for them to join us in the bathroom to help. The entire family took turns attempting to do the "Heimlich maneuver" but to no avail. (this is extremely funny in retrospect) After about 5 minutes, the family realized that I was still crying. They thought it was over, but I kept pointing at my throat, "Mi garganta me dule!" It was still stuck and I was getting more worried that I would have a chicken bone permanently in my throat.

Of course the family was still very worried, except for Rodrigo, who seems to always be oblivious. The entire time he sat at the kitchen table : "tranquillo". But I think at this point Elisa yelled at him to get the car started because nothing was getting the bone out! At the same exact moment, the bone passed to who knows where in my body. (Im assuming its about at my stomach by now.) I stopped crying and told them I was fine and I didnt need to go to the hospital.

Haydee and Sergio returned to their bed and Rodrigo to his post. Elisa dragged me into the kitchen for a spoonful of "olive oil" to wash down the chicken bone. I finished my soup, after scooping out all of the chicken pieces. Needless to say, i wasnt in the mood for chicken anymore.

I felt very embarrassed about choking on a chicken bone. I kept thinking *why didnt i spit it out! What did i do wrong! Don't I chew!?* I thanked Elisa for her help. She comforted me by telling a story about how she was choking one time and her father came to the rescue with the heimlich. Then came the jokes, as predicted:

"Want some more chicken?"

"Are you going out tonight?"

"Did you see how Haydee tried to take control? She threw Elisa off and took over with the heimlich! In the night, she is probably saying 'Corissa, are you ok? ok good. Go back to sleep!"

It is very customary here to get made fun of or to make light of serious situations. I like that.

OK. Now, its time to look up the word "bone" in my spanish-english dictionary....