“Dad, just keep breathing steadily. They’re running a test. If things continue to look as good as they do right now, someone is going to pull out that nasty bugger real soon.”
Standing in a room on the ICU unit of a local Cincinnati hospital, words of encouragement were the only things my father needed to hear at that precise moment. The overriding focus was to ditch that most bothersome breathing tube ASAP!!!
I’ve never awoken with something foreign lodged well beyond my vocal cords, but people who have and were unfortunately lucid enough will quickly recant one of the most unpleasant episodes of their lives.