Sept 11, 2014: The real definition of HEROES

As most of you know, I'm not a sports fan.  I think there is way too much emphasis, on every level, on athletics in this country.  If scholastic achievements were recognized with the same celebration and hoopla as sports players get how much better would this country be?  But the thing that makes me scream at the TV (or radio) is when these athletes, who are paid millions of dollars, are referred to as 'heroes' for something they did in a game.  They are playing different games with various sizes of balls, nothing they do is heroic--not even if you make the winning play.  They are doing an advanced type of play that millions of children do every day, they are NOT special.  It's a game--it doesn't matter. 

The word HERO should be saved for specific situations: someone who risks harm to themselves in order to save another.  While the military and emergency services (police, fire and EMS) are by nature of their jobs frequently in these situations, they perform heroically while paid low wages and with very little gratitude or recognition on a regular basis.  And then there are the civilians who find themselves faced with danger and perform selfless acts to save another, sometimes recognized in the news, or in the ever present social media.  They aren't playing games, they are making a difference in the actual real world where things matter. 

Below is a reflection I gave at BuxMont on the 10 year anniversary.  While certainly I'm biased when it's my writing, it seems to deserve a repeat.

 



The Heroes of September 11

On September 11, 2001 a total of 2,893 people, excluding the hijackers, died in the World Trade Center. 2,482 of those people were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were tragic victims, people like any of you, who went to work that day with the expectation of returning to their homes and families that night, but instead perished in the attacks on our country.

There were 411 other people from New York killed that day who fall into a different category than victim: the heroes from emergency services who chose to rush into the place where everyone else with any sense was racing to get out of.

It takes a special type of person to run into a burning building. You have to push aside your fear, defy every survival instinct that you have, to deliberately place yourself in circumstances that could kill you as you try to save another. Yet that’s exactly what those 411 brave men and women did. Not just because it was their job and they had to: many firefighters already off shift choose to jump on a truck instead of leave, or responded to the Towers even though they were off duty. As the situation deteriorated they knew they weren’t coming back out: before entering many firefighters received quick absolutions from two Catholic priests, and then they deliberately entered the burning towers.

On that horrible day FDNY lost 340 firefighters, 2 paramedics & a much loved FDNY priest. NYPD lost 23 officers, Port Authority PD lost 37 plus a K-9 officer. Eight EMTs & paramedics from private or hospital based ambulances also died. They died in the line of duty, attempting to save others. Their deaths account for 15% of the casualties—a high number for a group who deliberately chose to put themselves in danger. There are many stories of their heroism that day. They are the embodiment of the verse from the Talmud “whoever saves one life it is as if he saved the entire world.”

More of these brave men and women continue to die every day, suffering from the consequences of their tireless work at the destroyed WTC site, horrible illnesses from inhaling the poisons in the dust that was draped over Ground Zero for weeks. They also deserve our gratitude and recognition, their sacrifice for the greater good.

Ordinary people also gave up their lives for others as the Towers collapsed. There are many stories of co-workers, or even strangers, staying with someone who was injured or moved slowly, giving up their own chance to escape. We will never know how many people made decisions in those last moments that cost them their lives because they were caring or comforting another. They are the unknown heroes.

Webster defines a hero as : ‘A person of distinguished valor or enterprise in danger…a prominent or central personage in any remarkable action or event…’ The passengers and crew of Flight 93 personify this definition. They learned of the other attacks from cell phone conversations to their loved ones, they knew their plane would be used to take more lives, and rather than sit passively, or hope for a last-second rescue, they collectively took matters into their own hands, knowingly sacrificed themselves to prevent their plane from being used as yet another missile. They were the first Americans to defend their country on that terrible day, fulfilling a verse from John 15: “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  That sentiment can clearly be amended to laying one's life down for their country.

In Memoriam

To all those lost at
WTC & The Pentagon

To the brave passengers and crew of
Flight 93

who were the first Americans to fight back against the terrorists

To those who knowingly made the ultimate sacrifice

FDNY, NYPD &  PAPD

and to those whose efforts then are leading to their deaths now

WE WILL NEVER FORGET

 

 

As the world again faces a threat from extremist Islamics we will, sadly, be forced to take military action.  Unfortunately this will give more opportunities for real heroes, many who will never receive any recognition.  Please say a prayer, for not only those who are gone, but for the many who will be placed in dangerous situations in the future, and by their actions will truly deserve to be called heroes.

 

 

Blessed be   Laurie

 

Sept 8: Really? Ya gotta be kidding.....

Kept meaning to post after the last depressing one, but kept getting busy.  So:

Cancer scare with Mom, which I didn't share with more than a handful of people.  Good news is that the mass in her cecum (beginning of large intestine, over on the right next to appendix) turned out to be a piece of poop.  So after 10 days of uncertainty it all turned out well.  Bad news: she has a newer compression fracture of L1.  That's bad because......

Mom had a bad fall about 30 years ago, ended up with 2 compression fractures of vertebra, T8 & T12, so severe that she lost 2 inches of height.  Over the years with disc collapses and etc her height is now down to about 4'9"--at 5'3" (I've lost about 1.5 inches due to disc disease) I tower over her.  She is having pain around the waist, which is what lead to the X-rays & CT that showed the mass, but the pain is so bad that she has to wear underwear that is at least one size too big and can only wear 2 pairs of pants that have wide bands rather than elastic.  I thought the compression fracture was causing the pain (right distribution of nerves), but it turns out that with the additional decrease in spinal height that she is so short that her lower ribs are now below the pelvic girdle, and the pain is coming from the ribs hitting the pelvic bones.  I've never heard of this, but it made perfect sense after her internist said it. 

Unfortunately there isn't much to do about this.  He's sending her to a physiologist who will determine if getting a kyphoplasty would help (my suggestion), to sort of 'reinflate' the L1 vertebra and might give just enough height to raise the lower ribs up (it's T11 & T12, the 'floating' ribs), or if muscle strengthening or a brace might help.  Chances are that none of these will make much of a difference, and the horrible thing is that the cancer would have been easier to treat.  This probably means she will live the rest of her life with pain, and since she has no major medical issues that may be for several more years.  She is, of course, less than enthused about this.

And then there's me:  I've broken my Left ankle.

Fell in the Giant parking lot Friday, thought I'd badly sprained Left ankle, also managed to land on Right knee and Left inside elbow.  Michael, Jenn and I were going to a local concert, so I had Michael get the boot from the garage--the irony here is that I've accumulated 3 boots over the time of the 2 multiple Left foot fractures, and just donated to the Phoenixville Free Clinic 2 of them, thought it was the 2 that came up higher and thought I kept the smaller one.  Turns out I kept the larger one.  Went out with them Friday, with Michael driving me door to door and Jenn helping me in and out of car and such, by the end of the night I was in a lot of pain.  Went to bed, woke Saturday and while the swelling was down everything was still quite painful.  In the clear light of day I assessed: if a patient came to me with this, what would I say for them to do?

Called my friend Rose, also  a PA, and she took me to the ER.  There's a nasty abrasion over the Right knee, and the elbow hurts (I broke that 15 years ago), so they X-ray'd all three.  I have an avulsion fracture of the Left tibia.  If you are going to have a fracture then avulsion is the way to go (at least everyone says that!), it's where the ligaments attach onto the bone, picture an octopus with the tentacles spread out attaching to the bone.  When there is trauma to the ligament the force can pull away the layer of bone that it is attached to. 

For most people this is a ~4 week healing process, but, of course, I'm not most people.  And I'm suspicious of the 4th metatarsal, which I wasn't aware was hurting when the ankle hurt more, but now am suspicious of another break as that one was broken in 2 places before.  As long as it took to get better before it will be made worse this time because of being on the prednisone, which slows all healing down.  It's three days out, and having stayed off it, wearing the boot, frequent icing, it remains impressively swollen but doesn't hurt.  The Right knee, however, hurts like a b**tch.  I suspect there is a bruised bone there, which doesn't show up on an X-ray, but makes sense since I landed on that and am on blood thinners. 

I'm angry, pissed, frustrated,, overwhelmed........

For some reason, however, there is that part of me that always sees the bright side of things.  The chief one is that with not working I can stay at home and be almost totally non-weight bearing (couple steps needed to get to toilet as bathroom too small for rolling chair) without it affecting anyone else's schedule.  Had thought about going to my friend Diane's this weekend, out on Cape Cod, so had kept this week open.  Can beg off the board meeting for UUMAC on Saturday, which means nothing until gyn appointment next week (which I've waited 2 months for since a new patient). I also have this situation down to a science, made even easier by a 'new' rolling office chair that someone was getting rid of and is much better than my old cheap one.  The new changes to the bathroom just made getting a shower much easier and safer, the new electric bed (Mom's holiday & birthday gift last year) makes elevating my feet way easier, and I know a couple more people for helping out.  And, not sure if I mentioned, I was planning on going to England again for my 10 year anniversary in October (of 1rst surgery) but hadn't made the plane reservations yet, so no loss of money there except for expediting my passport renewal, which I did in anticipation of needing a little sooner than six weeks.  (That was vanity, because my passport expired last fall, and there is no way I was going to get a picture taken with my eyes so swollen from the Sjogren's!)

Appointment Friday with ortho (they like the swelling to be down some) and made sure it was at an office that had X-rays there in case the foot needs to be looked at. 

Will try to update here more often, and certainly have the time now, although going back to the bed for a while with ice as can elevate it higher there than on the couch and it's still impressively swollen.

Thanks for checking in (although there are fewer and fewer of you!),  Laurie