You Take My Breath Away

Thought I needed to add a little addendum to my description of this year's Valentine's Day celebration. Turns out my surgery wasn't the only thing that was going to mess up our 2014 Valentine's Day. After I wrote yesterday's post, Chris took me out to eat at a nearby restaurant that I've really been wanting to try. So that was a nice surprise.

The food was delicious and although we didn't have any wine or alcohol with dinner (I can't have alcohol with the pain killers I'm on) we did enjoy a fantastic tiramisu for dessert. All in all, it was a nice meal and a good way to make the best of our already messed up Valentine's Day.

And then it happened. The curse. Chris had already paid the bill and went to take one last sip of water before getting up. I heard him cough just a little and then didn't hear anything, so I thought he was ok. But when he didn't get up and was staring at the table, I quickly realized something was wrong. Really wrong. His face started turning red and he very clearly wasn't able to breathe.

I slid out of the booth and must have said "Are you ok?" pretty loudly because several people turned around to look and a second later, a guy from the bar had run over and put his hand on Chris's shoulder. He also asked if Chris was ok, but Chris couldn't respond. He closed his eyes and made a loud noise as he tried to suck in air. Apparently he was able to get a small breath and he pointed to his water glass.

"It's just water," he croaked in a voice that had almost no breath behind it.

His face was still red and we just sat and waited for Chris to start breathing normally. We couldn't tell if he was getting any or not. He gasped a couple more times and was finally able to cough a little. Slowly, he seemed to be returning to normal. The man gave him a pat on the back and I thanked him for coming over.

Chris and I just stared at each other from across the booth. I had never seen anyone choke like that in real life, let alone on just water. I wasn't sure if I he needed the Heimlich or a slap on the back or what. And I didn't really think I would be able to do anything in my condition. Chris said he definitely felt about 5 seconds of complete panic before he was able to just force himself to take in a breath.

As we walked to the car, replaying the last few minutes in our heads, Chris muttered "The curse continues."