Sunday evenings we like to start a fire in the late afternoon and keep the Sunday night blues at bay.
This particular Sunday was no different. Joining us by the fireside were my in-laws. On the menu was snoek – something we have not had in a while.
After a lovely meal, the Engineer (who is not a complainer) quietly asked me in the kitchen, how do you get a fishbone unstuck from your throat. I literally wanted to strangle him. I already have two three-year-olds who I have to cut things up for. I very carefully took out all the fish bones from their plates… I did not know that I had to do it for the adult as well.
I remembered something about bread and cottonwool and we tried that but the problem persistently stuck.
So at 20h30 on a Sunday evening he went to a 24-hour medical centre, where the locum inspected the problem and informed him that a) he could not see anything, and b) he did not have the right tools.
So the Engineer came home and slept the sleep of the undisturbed while I kept checking if he was in fact sleeping.
Monday morning rolled around and I issued him with the number of my ENT – miracle worker on my speed dial who would definitely have the right tools. The patient still wanted to make arrangements for a later appointment due to meetings and other responsible grown up things, but the doc9 said no, he needed to come in immediately.
After having a camera through his nose into his throat and inspecting the culprit the Engineer was informed that unfortunately, although he can see it he cannot reach it, and Johan would have to be admitted and put under for a two-minute procedure. The good doctor was also only available at 17h30. The receptionist, however, told the patient that he needed to hurry up and get admitted because he needed to go for his COVID test first. So an ordinary day got quite weird. COVID meant that I could not go with him to hospital and the Lilliputians meant that I could not pick him up on Monday night (unless I stuck us all in the car for a late-night outing). So he came home and got his Kindle and Ubered to the hospital.
He was finally pushed into the theater a little after 18h00 and anesthesia being what it is only sent through proof of life around 20h30. Together with the following information that the foreign object was not a fishbone. It was a bristle from the steel brush that we use to clean the grid. More importantly, my father in law’s brush because dinner was with them.
So… this is a thing. In December a friend of ours from Canada told us that you could not even buy these brushes in Canada because the bristles got stuck in people’s intestines. You can read an article about this here. And even locally they published about the hidden danger.
So with all this excitement and the preparation of soft food this week, I completely forgot about my special publication for National Braai Day. This will follow soon. I promise!