What's a Monday night without a trip to the Emergency Department?

Isaac came home from a soccer game and dug into some ribs that were set aside for Dave's lunch the next day. Karma. Moments later, we were all upstairs and could hear him screaming for us. It's never a good thing when your 'very cool' 16-year old feels screaming is warranted to get your attention. Dave raced downstairs to find him vomiting, wretching, and choking. He felt immense pressure on his chest, and couldn't get a deep breath. We were able to calm him down, and chalked it up to eating too fast. But the pain persisted - and he was having difficulty managing even his own secretions. He couldn't swallow anything - including his own spit. Dave and I were pretty quick to diagnose a high obstruction - and we tested the theory with some water. He drank about 1/4 cup and it came right back up, and he couldn't breath. He was terrified. At this point, we headed to the hospital.
Everyone there was amazing. I have always been impressed with emergency medicine - and the staff last night was no exception. He had some X-rays, which of course showed nothing - because he had a piece of meat stuck in his lower esophagus - it looked just like the rest of his soft tissue. But they finally got a GI doctor down and it was decided that he would have an endoscopy done to hopefully push the food down into his stomach. Unfortunately, the monitor they brought in to perform the procedure was on the fritz - and it caused a 20-minute delay. In the meantime, all the air in Isaac's upper GI system was backing up - he couldn't burp. I could see the panic in his face - he was in so much pain. Finally, just before he was sedated, he vomited more secretions. We left the room and they put him under (they wouldn't let us stay in the room).
He was sedated with Propofol, and 10 minutes later, he was good as new. They were able to push the food down. The GI doctor wants to take a couple of biopsies to diagnose any possible cause for the blockage - an allergy that caused the stricture, possibly - so he has another endoscopy scheduled in a month. He felt instant relief.
When we left, he was still feeling the effects of the sedation. He kept saying, "So - there was really something in there, right? Because I don't want everyone to think I was just being a wuss." He said that like 5 times. And he kept saying, "I love you guys. Thank you for taking care of me. I love you guys. You guys are such good parents." And he was a chatty-Cathy for the whole snowy, 3:00 am drive home, asking the same things over and over again.
Needless to say, we are glad he is okay. And he is really glad he is okay.

Adina