All choked up...

I'm not having much luck recently in the health department, having chipped a bone in my elbow the other week, and nearly dying yesterday.

I was on the bus on my way home from work when I felt a little peckish and after a root around in my bag I found a small chocolate bar. After taking a bite from said bar I decided to breathe in and swallow at the same time, not a good move. The piece of chocolate got stuck in my windpipe and I started to choke. Suddenly I am doubled up in pain unable to breathe hoping there was someone on the bus that would recognise my symptons and come to my aid. all I got was a bloke on the next seat turning round and looking at me as if to say "will you stop making those noises".

Panic time, I'm on my own.

Luckily I have St Johns first aid training and looked at my options.
Number 1; five hard slaps to the back. Try doing this to yourself, it's not easy.
Number 2; The Heimlich Manoeuvre. Again impossible on your own.
By this time I had actually stopped breathing.
Last option, punch myself in the chest.
People on the bus are looking at me as if I was some wierdo having a fit and beating myself up. It must have looked like the toilet scene in Liar, Liar.
I had no intetion of dying on a bus and after three or four punches I managed to get the blockage out and I staggered off the bus. I propped myself up against a tree tears pouring down my face and covered in sweat with what felt like a hot coal in my throat but at least I was breathing again.
Today I think I have fractured my chest bone so it still hurts to breathe but that was a close one.
There should be more people out there with First Aid training as I once came across a person in the same state and managed to get the blockage out with a couple of hard slaps to the back.
You don't get rid of me that easy.