Choked Up

“Aahh…ahhh…” Struggling for breaths, this inmate kept pointing at his throat.


“They put something in my food. I’m allergic to legumes. They must put some “soy” or something. I had pancakes.”


“Sir, pancakes here don’t have soy or legumes in them,” I replied as I hurried to strap the blood pressure cuff on one of his arms and put the oxygen saturation monitor on his thumb. The reading flashed 99% [anything more than 90% is great!].


“Something! I just told you! My throat is closing up! Aahh…” His moaning and gasping for air continued as he tried to wobble his head side to side.


Using a wooden tongue depressor, I took a peek into his mouth and with my bright flashlight, did not see any obstructive object nor there was any visible swelling. However, it didn’t mean that there was no problem down deeper with his larynx [voice box] or any structure below that might be swelling up. I needed to explore further.


I had him close his mouth and using my stethoscope, listened to him take a deep breath as I commanded him to do so. The sound of a troubled breathing was not present when he did so. He appeared calm and was able to take some breaths in without the struggle he portrayed when he first walked in. His lung sounds were clear! Watching the oxygen monitor at a close distance, it was staying at 99%.


He only had a history of seizure, nothing else. Working in the jail, the medical staff was just aware of how manipulative some inmates could be. He was one of them. And if we ignored his complaints, he could potentially fake a “seizure and become a man down”.


The other nurse called the on-call doctor anyway. And just to be on the safer side, his order was received to give him some medications to counter the allergic reaction.


“Sir, I needed you to swallow the water first.” He didn’t know that everything I had him do was to be observed and as he took a gulp or two without difficulty, I already knew that he wasn’t having an anaphylactic reaction.


Giving him his pills, one at a time, he started demanding, “I need the epinephrine shot! They gave that to me one time!”


“Sir, I can’t give you anything that the doctor had not ordered. This is what he ordered and this is all I can give you. If these don’t seem to help, I will call him back.”


Appearing more calmly, he surrendered to my advice. He started trusting me. Yet, after swallowing the pills without any difficulty, he started demanding again for the “shot!”. The day charge nurse walked in at that time and immediately recognized him and knew he was a hard kind of patient to have.


I motioned for him to relax on one of the benches in the Clinic’s waiting area so we could continue to monitor him, as his agonizing breaths, now became more normal and the demands waning.








Sad…As I went back to my charting. That we, too fall into this same habit. How easy it is to agree with Christ with no intention of obeying. We desire for things of this world that end up choking the desire to pursue Christ first.


Like this inmate wanting the shots, are we yelling, “I want money!” “I want happiness!” “I want everything that this world offers!”


Are we still desiring for Christ and His Kingdom? Or we’ll allow ourselves to get choked up by things that have no value? We need to relax, and think about the only “One” we will ever need.


“The thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the Good News, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares of this life and the lure of wealth, so no crop is produced.” -Matthew 13:22


“So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and He will give you all you need from day to day if you live for Him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.” - Matthew 6:31-33