At 6:30 last night, our SIL called in something of a panic, saying she thought she had just aspirated a vitamin pill. Her husband had told her it was 1) unlikely 2) unlikely to be a problem even if she had aspirated it and 3) if it was a problem, they would know because she would develop symptoms over the next couple of days and could deal with the problem then.
She wanted us to tell her husband that she should go to emergency right away. We demurred. SIL has a history of demanding medical tests her doctors say are not necessary or warranted, even paying out of her own pocket thousands of dollars for private tests Canada’s medical system won’t pay for because she didn’t meet any of the criteria for the test. And several years ago, the family’s pediatrician suggested her constant trips to the doctor with her young teenagers were unnecessary and bordered on a very mild form of Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy. (There was no suggestion SIL was harming her children, only that she was unduly anxious and transferring her own illness anxiety onto them.)
We suggested she drink some water, get some sleep, and let us know how she felt in the morning. Was this appropriate? What signs indicating medical help is needed should we tell her to watch for? SIL is 50, so not elderly, and is in good health. The symptom she reported to us, after swallowing the pill, gasping, then briefly coughing, is a scratchy throat.
Someone is coming along eventually to tell me that the particulates in ciggie smoke are larger than vapor. Pull the other one!
(BTW: what you did was, IMHO, the right thing; if you had given her one scintilla of verification that she was heading terminal, it would have been lights and sirens time and probably ill feelings aimed at you later on.)
I do, however, have trouble swallowing pills, but need to take them. I’ve had those described symptoms multiple times; with the “coughing” part sometimes amounting to several minutes hunched over the sink coughing up lots of phlegm but no visible pill. It’s no fun whatsoever; but I’ve never had any significant trouble breathing, and it’s never been followed by any further symptoms. I’ve never called a doctor, let alone hared off to emergency; I’ve always assumed that if I actually had managed to land the thing in my lungs that there would eventually be further symptoms which wouldn’t clear up within a short time.
If an actual doctor comes into this thread and I’m wrong about that, please let me know!
Just last week I heard on a podcast of a man in his 50’s who starting having severe lung problems. Scans showed a triangular object. When it was removed, it was found to be a toy orange traffic cone that the man had aspirated as a child.
People aspirate objects all the time, and they don’t always cause obvious symptoms.
That’s where I landed when I decided to put this to the Dope, a version of Mark Twain’s “It ain’t what you don’t know that hurts you, it’s what you know that ain’t so.” I presume lots of people have aspirated stuff, from traffic cones to pills to whatever, but I’ve never heard of anyone having a problem, apart from the obvious choking issue. Unlike, say, the many stories here and elsewhere regarding various emergency room visits for impromptu extractions of various kinds. But, well, Mark Twain.
I totally get having troubles swallowing, and not just among the elderly. But this pill was part of her routine, and, well, you know the rest.
Well, sooner or later they will, if the people don’t die of something else before. A vitamin pill will probably either irritate the tissue and cause a chemical pneumonia or just be absorbed and disappear.
Not a doctor, paging @Qadgop_the_Mercotan .
SIL has just called, now worried she might get “hemorrhagic bronchial necrosis” from aspirating the vitamin pill. There are times Google is not your friend. But hey, it’s good for expanding the old vocab, I guess. Her gotcha! sense of triumph at having found a possible serious consequence from the pill she thinks she might have aspirated is a little hard to, er, swallow.
I’ve aspirated a small amount of stomach acid. I knew RIGHT AWAY and it wasn’t at all subtle. I think if she was going to have a problem with the pill, it would have shown up, and she wouldn’t be calmly researching on the internet or chatting with her family.
