I was snoozing nicely when I realized someone was pushing on my stomach/diaphragm. WTF… why can’t they just let me sleep. It kept up and I realized it was my daughter… she is usually the nice one and doesn’t bother me when I nap (unlike my boys). I awake enough to push her hands aside and tell her to knock it off.
Then, I hear my wife (cell phone to ear) yelling are you ok!?! and my daughter standing over me looking stunned. I respond, I’m fine… what are you doing?
My wife is still very upset and my daughter is looking confused. My wife asks… don’t you remember anything?
Slowly the fog starts to clear from my “nap.”
I’ll back up a bit. I’ve had a cough for several weeks due to a side effect of an older medication. I’m back on the good stuff now (doesn’t cause the cough), but my doctor told me it would take a few weeks for the cough to stop.
Back to tonight… I was watching TV with my wife and daughter. Normal evening, nothing special. At some point I was talking, and I had to cough… but I had just exhaled. My diaphragm was having spasms trying to force the coughs out, but my lungs were trying desperately to get some air in. My wife said “are you ok?” and I shook my head “no.”
Cue back to the beginning of this saga.
Daughter thought I was choking and since her 100 lbs wasn’t going to move me (almost twice her weight) from my relaxed and reclining position she was doing her best at improvising the Heimlich and my wife was frantically trying to dial 911.
It only lasted maybe 10 seconds or so… the body is an amazing thing. I ran out of oxygen, my body shut down which allowed the diaphragm to relax and the brain kicked in and let me take a breath in and then put things back to normal. I actually felt a bit “rested” then I woke back up. Daughter went back to studying a minute later… wife was still breathing hard about an hour later.
All in all, nothing serious, but I guess I have to be nice to my daughter for a while (seriously, I’m very proud of how she promptly reacted)
No, in real time it only lasted about 10-15 seconds. I just passed out briefly until my body could recover from the coughing fit.
My wife’s time though though it was “several minutes”… she got the numbers punched in but hadn’t hit the send button yet.
I should also clarify, my daughter is 17… volunteers at a hospital, and is going into pre-med, so she knew what she was doing. Didn’t want anyone to think this was some amazing 4 year old.
Wow, scared me, too, reading this. Dude, do yourself and your family a favor. Call your doctor tomorrow and let him know what happened. Nothing is too small to bother him with. Even if you think it’s “nothing” your doctor might think otherwise. Not to sound alarmist, but letting him know may save your life.
I agree, you should see your healthcare provider. What you describe could be Tussive (cough) Syncope. It’s usually seen in middle aged men, who smoke or have smoked in the past, who are overweight, or drink alcohol, but it can happen to other groups as well.
It’s main danger is hurting oneself. My husband had it when he got whooping cough. He was unable to drive for several weeks. He ended up in the ER a couple times for head lacerations from falling and hitting stuff on the way down.
Yeah, pretty much any loss of consciousness, even brief (that isn’t obvious and intentional sleep) should be checked out. Yes, it’s probable that it was the cough that did it. But it could have been a slight stroke, or a heart attack (sometimes those have no symptoms at all) or something else that your health care team really should be keeping an eye on.
I know, I know, saying “go see your doctor” is easy from the assumption that you have a doctor, and medical insurance, and money for the deductible. Those are the harder issues to deal with.
Tell your daughter that next time she should drag you down by your ankles and get you on the floor. Improvisation is brilliant in the theater and when doing dressing changes. Not so good for CPR. But good thinking nonetheless.
I appreciate the concern from everyone and the advise to see my doctor… I was in his office about 9 hours earlier than this incident and we were talking about the cough. It is a direct side effect of the blood pressure medication that I had been taking. I’ve got about two more weeks before it will clear up. I’ve been coughing for about 3 weeks now, and this was just an unfortunate coincidence that I had fully exhaled when the coughs started and I couldn’t get a breath in.
Maybe you should give his office a call about this anyway. I’m not trying to be alarmist, really, but I don’t think I can handle another “Doper posts about weird medical problem one day/his spouse comes on the next day to post about his death” situation right now.
Thanks for telling us that the daughter was 17. From this “…I realized it was my daughter… she is usually the nice one and doesn’t bother me when I nap (unlike my boys).” I had assumed she was a tyke. Great daughter, by the way. They can come in handy, let me tell you (said the proud father of two daughters).
Right. The Heimlich can only be done if the choker is upright, which the OP’s daughter didn’t know. If they’re unconscious and you get them flat on the ground, you can do chest compressions, which can force an item blocking the airway out, and is a step of CPR. If a person is unconscious and not breathing, you’re talking about CPR.
For someone who is *not *a healthcare provider, if a person is unconscious and not breathing, you just start chest compressions. No need to even look in the mouth, because we no longer recommend sticking your fingers in there to fish something out, and no need to head tilt chin lift, because we no longer recommend rescue breaths. Just lay 'em flat on the hardest surface you’ve got (drag 'em to tile if you have thick plush carpet) and pump on their chest (1.5-2" deep, on the lower half of the breastbone, but not the end of it) to the rhythm of “Staying Alive” while someone else calls 911.
My boys… also teens, have no problem treating me like one of their own. If I fall asleep on the couch, it isn’t uncommon to feel an annoying tickle, poke, or to wake up with something precariously balanced on me somewhere. It’s ok, I’m the one that showed them originally.
Actually, I was mostly upright. I was sitting at the end of the couch, so probably reclined no more that 10 degrees in the corner. She was doing abdominal thrusts just like I was taught to do many years ago.
It has been many years since I was certified so I don’t doubt you that things have changed, but do they really want you to do chest compressions when my heart was beating just fine? I thought compressions to the heart could seriously mess with the rhythm and do more harm than good.
For those who said to follow up anyway, I did give my Dr. a call today. He asked a ton of questions, and at the end decided it wasn’t anything to worry about, but if I feel the tell tale “tickle” that triggers these coughs, to stop what I’m saying and take a deep breath rather than trying to finish my point before being interrupted with a cough (what can I say, I’m a doper and I had a point to make so I tried to get it out before coughing).
As for those who commented that I have an amazing 17 year old daughter… I couldn’t agree with you more on so many levels.
Nope. Further research says no, go ahead and give compressions if they’re not breathing. If they’re choking, it’s your best bet for dislodging whatever’s blocking the airway. If they’re not, it will make sure oxygenated blood is circulating. Either way, it’s unlikely to disturb the heart (although it’s possible to break ribs and cause a lot of bruising, of course.)
We don’t even teach anyone to check for a pulse anymore. Not even medical professionals. It takes too much time and it’s too hard to find and you can have a pulse without the heart beating effectively and it doesn’t hurt people to get chest compressions even if their heart is beating.
Not trained in CPR? Call 911 and start Chest Compressions. That’s it. Two steps.
Trained in CPR? Then you may use rescue breaths if the airway is clear, but only AFTER compressions.
What, you are claiming that medical advise changes over the years? As soon as I’m done with these leaches I’m going to look into this wild claim of yours.
I used to be a lifeguard, and a dive master (basically a lifeguard for scuba divers). It has been may years now since I’ve been certified and I knew lots of things had changed, but it may be time for me to actually get my certifications back up to date. Thanks for the update.
Although actually, I’m kind of glad she didn’t break any of my ribs.
Save the leeches, we use those again. (Seriously - they help prevent blood clotting in delicate blood vessels after certain reconstructive surgeries!) We like maggots, too, to nibble away dead tissue from non-healing wounds. Special lab raised sterile maggots, of course.
