Where in the World are V and M?: Fish bone mayhem

After a 5-6 hour bus ride we arrived in Fethiye. This is a southern town on the coast of Turkey. We decided to spend two nights here because we wanted to have some time to relax after Istanbul and Selcuk's go, go, go. We arrived late and walked into our hotel, Pinara Pansion, without a reservation, and thankfully got a room. Then we switched to another room because the heater wasn't working (it got down to freezing in the evening).

After a good night of rest we woke up to the typical Turkish breakfast: bread, cheese, boiled eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, and flavored tea. We took a walk along the marina across the street and then headed along the waterfront into town. Having heard that one of the things to do in Fethiye is to go to the Fish Market we headed straight there. Here you can go to the fish vendors, pick out your fish, then have it cooked at the restaurant of your choice for 6 Turkish Lira/per person. It was a cool concept. There was such a great selection: salmon, grouper, trout, mackrel, sea bass, shrimp, crawfish, mussels, etc. We decided on a smaller sea bass for about 10 Lira.

The restaurant started us off with bread, salad, and cheese while they cooked the fish. Then out came the fish. It looked so delicious we forgot to take a pic. As we started to dig in Muthoni reminded me to watch out for bones. Then, no more than 10 seconds after she said this, drama! I see Muthoni jump up from her seat shouting, "Vernon! Hit me!" as she frantically tries to cough out a fish bone. Oh no! Remembering my first aid training from high school I told her "Keep Coughing, keep coughing." Still, no dice. She ran to the bathroom to try coughing it out more. She even tried inducing vomit to get it out (DO NOT EVER DO THIS!) but still no help. She was hurting so much. The waiter handed her a huge piece of bread and said, "You have to swallow this whole." She did, and then she said "Now the pain is on the other side!" She drank a few bottles of water, which was no help at all. She couldn’t eat any more and was in a lot of pain. After 20 minutes we decided that we needed to see a doctor.

We left the fish market and walked there (wasn't too far). When we arrived, the doctor put a scope in her throat. I was there so I could see the screen he was looking at. The bone was nowhere in sight. "It must have gone down", the doctor said. They said the pain may have been from the bone scratching on the way down. So they prescribed a medicine to gargle and a pain killer. She was still in a lot of pain, but we hoped the pain killers would help. (They didn't. At our next stop in Cappadocia Mu took one of the pills but it got stuck in her throat, now much more swollen. We had to go to the hospital there where the doctor gave her an IV drip. The swelling went down. They gave some good medical advice of eating only cold things to prevent further swelling.) So there may have been nicer things to see in Fethiye, but we needed Mu to get some rest. We took a few pics though. Look and see.