Back when I was in high school I used to be a straw chewer. Everyday I would chew on straws. Not sure why, I just did.
Then one day at lunchtime I’m standing around with my circle of friends. One of my friends says something funny. I guess the first part of my laugh is an inhale. Or it was that day atleast. Anyways, I inhale the whole straw. My face went from laughing mode to panic mode in an instant. My friends noticed my face of panic, but didn’t know what happened. I managed to inform them that I had just swallowed a straw.
I tried to gag myself for the remainder of lunch in attempt to bring the straw back. To no avail. My friend were all laughing hysterically at me. I felt the straw in my throat for a couple hours afterwards. It was horrible. Never got it out.
My dog swallowed a bone halfway down her throat once. It was the kind of bone that’s hollow in the center, so she wasn’t choking; she was just trying unsuccessfully to cough it back up, but because it was hollow she could breathe unobstructed and was unable to cough. It was making this weird, whistling, “HOOOO-HOOOOO” noise when she tried to cough.
Finally she somehow got it back up. The entire episode was bizarre, creepy, and a little bit hilarious.
Trust me, the straw is long gone. The acids in your stomach would melt stainless steel eventually.
When I was young, our dog (Ralph) as they were clearing the table, jumped up and grabbed a chicken leg bone. Dad ran off after Ralph to get it away from him (chicken bones splinter.) Even the niceset dogs growl if you try to take food away from them. Dad approached, Ralph growled, flinched, and accidently swallowed the bone, WHOLE. Straight down. They called the vet and he said it’s ok, eventually it will work it’s way thru his system.
Once when I was around four years old, I was up in my bedroom allegedly for the purpose of taking a nap. Instead, I was playing with a penny I had found. This included putting it in my mouth. I accidentally swallowed and dutifully went downstairs and told me mother. She told me it wasn’t a problem and sent me back upstairs to finish my nap.
Looking back on this later, I considered this was a somewhat cavalier attitude for my mother to have taken. I reminded her of the incident and asked her why she hadn’t thought I might have required some medical attention. She admitted she had thought I made up the story about swallowing the penny in order to get out of taking a nap.
I swallowed a quarter when I was little. It got stuck straight sideways in my throat and we had to go to the hospital and they knocked me out and went in and got it. We have the x-rays still somewhere… my little 4-year-old neck with this perfectly round quarter-sized circle in the middle. woo.
I take it that if the straw was actually inhaled, rather than swallwed, and ended up lodged in the trachea, that it would cause immediate and serious complications? - What I’m asking is if there is any way that it could have ended up in the airway and remained there relatively unnoticed, but poised to do some serious damage.
People find weird shit in their bodies many years after the alleged incident took place. I’d get an x-ray if I were you. But I’m not you, so if you feel ok with it, just don’t do anything!