Today I want to talk about my son.
Right about now he’s rolling his eyes, but that’s ok.
We all love our children and want the best for them, and I’m no exception.
We brag and we dote.
HOWEVER, I owe my son a debt of gratitude because when he was 14 years old he saved my life.
I don’t mean it figuratively or as a “saying”. I mean, he LITERALLY saved my life.
It was because of his quick thinking that I’m here today.
Here’s what he did:
I was very active in health and fitness.
At that time I was dedicated to fitness for myself and for others.
I ate right, exercised 6 days a week to my optimum level, took supplements as needed, and meditated.
I was doing EVERYTHING right.
BUT…
The one thing I did OH SO WRONG was take a lot of supplements at one time.
I had done it more than once before.
(That may give you an inkling of where I‘m headed with this story.)
About six years ago I was in the kitchen of the townhouse he and I shared.
He was watching television in the adjacent living room.
I had done my workout and was eating my morning oatmeal.
I loaded up my hand with a fistful of vitamins.
I put the entire handful of vitamins in my mouth, took a big gulp of water and swallowed.
TRUST ME when I say this was a VERY BIG MISTAKE.
I quickly realized they weren’t all going to go down.
I drank more water.
They wouldn’t go down.
I drank more water.
No water flow and…
no air flow.
I tried to cough.
Nothing.
I grabbed my throat knowing I was choking.
I couldn’t call out to my son because…
no air, no sound.
SO…
I stepped around the corner of the kitchen to face the living room and banged hard on the wall.
He finally looked over at me and saw the international sign for choking. (if you don’t know it, it’s two hands on your throat. Pretty simple, eh?)
THEN…
As calm as a Buddhist monk he walked into the kitchen and immediately, AND PERFECTLY I might add, applied the Heimlich maneuver to me.
It took several attempts and then the vitamins catapulted out of my throat across the kitchen.
I gasped for air.
I just looked at him acknowledging the implications of what might have happened and what actually DID happen.
He hugged me, looked at me like a wise old soul and said “You ok, now, Mom?”
With tears streaming down my face I nodded and hugged him again.
I said, ”You just saved my life. Do you realize that?"
He said, “Yea, ok, just don’t take so many vitamins next time.”
Then he walked back into the living room and sat down and watched tv.
I thought to myself. “THAT GUY IS SO COOL! I want to be that cool. What did I do to deserve such a cool son? And WHERE did he learn the Heimlich?”
I'll never forget those moments, or the details.
Time slowed down to a crawl. I can see it frame by frame even today.
AND…
To this day I’ve never taken more than one supplement at a time.
What does this have to do with travel?
That incident goes with me wherever I go. I‘m ultra careful with food and supplements when I travel.
Not to mention that right after the incident I marched down to the nearest Red Cross for renewal of my First Aid, AED and CPR certifications.
I’ve used them more than once.
Most recently, two weeks ago, on a motorcyclist who crashed on the highway I was traveling…
He lived.
As always, thanks for reading.
See you next time!