I've got a bone to pick...or do I really?

So this is one of those stories where I just don't know of anyone else this has happened to. Let me begin by giving some background facts to this story:

A) I purchased a cheesy tool kit for a Christmas gift exchange and I decided not to gift it because after looking at the tools, they seemed sort of worthless for any real use. Included in this tool kit was a pair of giant tweezers, not something you normally have sitting next to your Philips or Flathead screwdriver, but there it is.

B) I like fish. I have been especially enjoying the Steelehead Trout from Costco. It comes with about 8-10 individually packed fillets of fish. Nice for a single person to make a meal with.

OK, so the story begins with dinner, and the fish. I cook up noodles and coat them lightly with tomato sauce, and make some of my fish. Spaghetti and fish, dunno if it really goes, but my roommate didn't care since I was cooking some up for her as well. We sat down Sunday evening to eat while watching Penelope. During my meal I swallowed and instantly could feel what felt like a fish bone go down my throat and stick somewhere near the top of my throat. Since I've had the braces on my teeth, I find that sometimes chewing is sometimes a pain and I tend to gulp down my food not chewed well, otherwise I might have caught the bone in the chewing process. Since it was stuck, I tried coughing, drinking water and forcing more masses of food down. No such luck in dislodging it. It was small enough it wasn't bothering with my swallowing other than I could feel it was going to irritate my throat as time passed. I decided it would work it's way out eventually. It's like having an obnoxious sliver, only down in the top of your throat. I went to bed and the next morning I ate oatmeal hoping still to dislodge the bone. No luck and my throat was getting soarer. I did what anyone would do, I googled my situation, "fish bone stuck in throat". I'm pretty certain that one gets looked at all the time. Well, from what I discovered, I'd done everything I could do other than remove the bone myself or go to the doctor, which they were saying could do minor surgery to remove the bone. Having not recovered from my gallbladder surgery this past summer, I was in no mood to return to the doctor over a dumb fish bone stuck in my throat. (at least not without giving it one more try to remove it, or letting it fester into a nice infection.) I went about my day and even attended my FHE assignment, and cleaned the dental office before my throat was really hurting and irritating me each time I swallowed. At 10:30 pm I went straight to that useless tool set, pulled out those extra large tweezers, and my flashlight and parked it in front of the mirror in the bathroom. I don't know how many of you have tried to see the back of your throat, but it's hard! My tongue was in the way, I would gag myself trying to force it down with a flat object like they do in the doctor's office. But I finally caught a slight glimpse of a white pokey thing stuck between my tonsils and the side of my throat. (yeah, I still have my tonsils) My roommate came and flashed the light in my mouth and kept instructing me to put my tongue down (easier said than done, it sort of has a mind of it's own). She too could see the object that was causing me so much pain. She offered to try to extract it for me. What a roommate! Only a good friend would offer to dig a fish bone out of the back of your throat! Knowing the instant the tweezers touched my throat I was going to gag and flinch, I didn't trust her to play "operation". I poured hydrogen peroxide on the tweezers, faced the mirror with my flashlight shining down my throat, then with tweezers in had, I dove it into the spot I thought the bone was at. Of course I missed it, but gagged like crazy. I'm now really tired of the pain the little bone is causing. I try again, diving the tweezers deeper and am almost shocked when I come out with the object, which doesn't at all look like a white fish bone! Instant relief as I swallow tells me the object in my tweezers, that I thought were worthless, was indeed the object that I'd lodged in my throat Sunday evening, over 24 hours earlier. I examined the object closer, even had my roommate come look at it. I believe it was a stem off one the many spices they put in the Italian Seasoning mix that I'd sprinkle onto my spaghetti! It was close to the size of a fish bone, but had little barbs on it! No wonder my throat had hurt.

So I played "operation" on myself. I'm pretty sure the gagging meant that I wasn't very good at "operation" but I came out successfully ridding myself of a painful obstruction and saving myself from a doctor's visit this time. Now I look at my "worthless" tool set with new respect. I'm pretty sure I can removed my kidney, if needed with that socket tool!