The day a fish bone got stuck in my throat

Something horrifying happened to me when I was in uni some years back. A simple act of eating fish peppersoup landed me in the emergency room! Can you believe that? I remember the whole episode like it was yesterday.

My flatmate’s mum had come to visit from Nigeria and she brought some nice fish. You know the scaly ones. I cannot remember the name of the fish but I know it was nice. The fish was so nice that my flat mate made lovely peppersoup with it when I went for a lecture.

I got home and immediately went to dish some peppersoup for myself. I was enjoying it until I accidentally swallowed a bone. If you see me eat fish, you’d know that I eat it carefully because I have had too many experiences of swallowing a bone. Somehow, I swallowed this bone but it wasn’t a big deal. I made eba and began to swallow huge lumps of it. That worked in the past. This very day, it didn’t work. I tried some other heavy food. Nothing.

Trying to stay calm,  I went to NHS online to see what they would recommend. I tried the different things suggested. Nothing worked. I still felt the bone in my throat. So I decided to go a walk in centre close to my house. The doctor checked me and told me there was no bone there. “It’s probably just a scratch”, she said. Just a scratch? You should have seen the dirty eye I gave her after she tried to insinuate that I was exaggerating. The pain I felt was definitely more that a scratch.

When she saw that I wasn’t satisfied with her “verdict”, she referred me to A & E (Accident and Emergency). I thought that was being rather dramatic but I sensed she was tired of my stubbornness. So I made my way to A & E. I got there still feeling the pain.

A doctor came to check my throat and said she couldn’t find any bone too. “Just a scratch”, she said. I did not agree. I told her that I felt real pain. We went back and forth on the matter until she referred me to another department. I cannot remember what it was called but they did an X-ray and guess what? No bone found! At this point, I began to doubt the pain I was feeling. “Maybe it’s really just a scratch this one that even the X-ray cannot even see it.”

But I still wasn’t convinced. The pain was too real every time I swallowed. Something was poking my throat. The previous doctor I saw came with this triumphant look on her face and said again, “Just a scratch.” I wanted to cry. I wanted to give up and go home. I turned to the other doctor and said, “This pain is too real to be just a scratch.” He looked at me and asked me to follow him. He wrote a note and asked me to follow someone. I was taken to the ENT Unit (Ears, Nose and Throat).

I was handed over to another female doctor and I narrated the whole ordeal to her. By this time I had already spent 6 hours trying to get rid of this bone. It was a service day and I had to send a message to my pastors that I would be late for service. I knew the ENT was my last bus stop but I also knew that there was a bone stuck in my throat which had to be removed. Not a scratch.

The doctor brought something to numb my throat and then she passed this camera thing through my nose and used it to examine my throat. And then, my moment of victory, the confirmation of what I knew deep down…she saw the bone! I was relieved. Vindicated. A few minutes later she brought out the bone. I looked at it and began to cry. Tears of victory. Imagine if I had gone back home after the first doctor dismissed me. Or the second one. Or the third. And what about the X-ray? They all had one verdict; just a scratch. I knew what I knew…there was a bone in my throat. Finally I had proof that I was right.

Isn’t this something that happens in our walk of faith sometimes. God gives you a word and several things show up and cause you to doubt that word. It could be human beings. It could be circumstances. Soon enough, you may begin to believe them. You may begin to see yourself through their eyes. You forget the word God has given to you and choose to believe a lie instead.

It happens to all of us but you must always hold on to your conviction that you know that your Redeemer lives. He has spoken it and it will surely come to pass. You may not have tangible proof to back what you know but His word is sufficient. Others may have proof that you will fail. They may have evidence that others who walked that same path stumbled. That’s their business. Hold on to what God has said to you, no matter how ridiculous it makes you look. You will be vindicated in the end because God’s word never returns to Him void.

Don’t believe the lies of the world. Believe the truth in the word of God.

 

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