The Scariest and Proudest Moment of my Life

This literally is the scariest and proudest moment of my life until now.

This happened at my Grandpa's on Christmas Eve. It was the end of the night and a lot of people had already left. We were actually getting ready to leave and I was getting sippy cups for the kids. I was in the kitchen getting Annabelle some milk and picking out my leftovers of the delicious food. Yum!

I was walking back toward the family room where most of the family was when I heard someone screaming my name. I stopped because it was one of those moments where you aren't 100% sure you really heard someone call your name.

I asked, "Did someone just yell my name??".

No one else heard it. Then my brother in law Andrew came into the room and said, in a very hurried voice, "Meghan! Angela needs you. Addie's choking!".

I dropped the sippy and ran into the living room where Andrew had come from and saw my sister and Addie on the floor. It was the scariest sight of my life. Not Addie. Which in itself was downright terrifying. But because my big sister was on the floor holding Addie and crying. I can probably count on one hand how many times I've seen my sister cry. It's that few. My sister is brave and strong and always so tough and sure of things. She's who I look to or call when I need a strong one. So to see her so visibly scared was horrifying.

I dropped to my knees and grabbed Addie and could hear my sister say, "Help me, she's choking! She's choking!".

After that, I don't really remember hearing anyone else. I just remember thinking, thank goodness they make us take a Basic Life Support class to get into Nursing school! I flipped Addie over onto her tummy, held her up (kind of rested her on my leg) and started hitting her on her back. I hit her about 5-7 times and I flipped her over. I looked in her mouth and lightly felt for the object, then I flipped her back over and started hitting her again. On about the 3rd hit of her back, she coughed out the object. It was a teeny tiny binder clip.

Like the smallest one on here:

Angie picked her up and she started crying. I don't blame her. I was hitting her kind of hard to get it out of her. I was so scared. After she calmed down she wanted a sippy cup. I don't blame her for that either! Poor girl had a binder clip stuck in her throat! We got her a sippy and she was a happy girl again. Although she didn't really want much to do with me for awhile! Although, one more time, I don't blame her. :)

Angie kept saying telling me thank you, thank you! I was just so happy I could do it! She made me nervous but she's a happy and healthy girl again. And she didn't need to thank me, of course I would do that! I'm just happy I learned the class and could do it. If it had happened to Annabelle though, I probably would've just freaked out and forgotten everything, so not that I wanted it to happen to anyone, but I'm glad it didn't happen to Annabelle because there could have been a different outcome. We were lucky though and my cousin's girlfriend is a resident at a hospital in Chicago and they had just left. While I was working on her someone grabbed her and she was on her way in. So I think we had her covered.

Also, Angie told us what happened when the whole thing was over and I'm glad I didn't see it. Ang was changing Addie's diaper and she was laying on her back and holding the binder clip in the air. Ang didn't know it was a binder clip because it was so small and my aunt had brought these 3D felt stickers for the kids and they had all been holding them all night. She just thought she was holding a small sticker. Then Addie dropped it and it literally dropped straight down her throat. How scary...

Ang told us she was screaming at the top of her lungs for help and no one heard her. She was in tears by the time Andrew came in. Andrew didn't even hear her. She asked Cecilia to go get Daddy and that's how Andrew found all this out. So Addie had been choking for a minute before I even got in there. The whole thing has randomly given me nightmares since it happened. I've played the "what if" game a few times and started freaking out and Nick has to remind me to stop, because everything worked out and Addie's fine.

I'm so thankful that I've decided to go into nursing school. I'm proud to be going into a position to help save people's lives or at the very least help them. I'm extremely thankful for my BLS class that taught me CPR and how to help choking victims. I think everyone should take a Basic Life Support class if they have the opportunity.

Here's the posted on how to help a conscious choking victim:

Whew. What a Christmas Eve!