Twenty one years ago on this date, I turned the television on to watch the twelve o’clock news. There was a special report announcing the WTC had experienced an explosion. I yelled down the basement stairs to my husband. He came bounding up the stairs, stood in front of the television and stated with a typical firefighter mentality “I can’t believe it. I missed the big one.” Today my thoughts and prayers have been with the families that lost loved ones on February 26, 1993. 6 people including a pregnant woman were killed in that terrorist attack. Their names are listed on the National September 11 Memorial including the words “and her unborn child”. Just think that unborn child would be an almost 21 year old young person. On another note, September 11, 2001 would prove that my husband didn’t “miss the big one.”

Today I spent the day at the hospital with my sister waiting for my mother to have surgery to remove a foreign object from her lung. Saturday morning, my mother had shown signs of confusion at the independent living facility where she resides. My sister had received a phone call and transported my mother to the hospital. I drove two hours north to join them. The ED doctors after a CT discerned she had not had a stroke (thank you, Jesus) but had pneumonia from a foreign object in her lung. She was admitted and we were told she would need to have the object removed. The foreign object was part of her dental bridge. You can’t make this stuff up. The back story is in May of 2013 at a family reunion my mother started “choking”. She insisted that she was fine. After much coaxing, she would look in a mirror, I would stand behind her and realize she was missing teeth. “I am fine. Don’t worry.” My cousin and I each contacted friends who are nurses and they stated “just keep an eye out. It will probably pass out of her body naturally.” Days pass and I ask my mom “did you poop the teeth?” My mom says “yes.” She shows no signs that she has aspirated it. She appears healthy. Fast forward to February 2014 after an unsuccessful attempt on Sunday to remove it, she is intubated, sedated, pumped with antibiotics and today surgery is scheduled. I am thankful that the procedure that failed on Sunday was accomplished successfully today. The surgeon walked in the waiting room jiggling a container that contained the bridge with 4 teeth attached. He said “this has to go to pathology.” My sister stated ” we don’t want it back.” He stated “the dentist can probably put it back in.” Alrighty, then. 🙂