Miss Ann Says

On Wednesday evenings, I am the “quiz master” for Children’s Bible Quizzing at the local church I attend. Since September we have been studying the book of Genesis. We have completed our 20 lessons aka “dig sites” and are now reviewing for the District Quiz on April 26.

As part of our review, I asked the children to quote one of the 20 Bible verses. I asked for volunteers and nearly every hand started waving to and fro. “Put your hands down, we will just go around the table.” As we went around the table each of the children attempted to say a verse. Many knew the “address”. Some needed a little help but all tried. When I reached the last child, he announced “I got nothing”. To which I said “Where would I find that.” 🙂

Last week as part of the review we made a family tree. We started with Joseph. We listed his 11 brothers and talked about his dad was Jacob and his mom was Rachel. Joseph had 1 full brother and 10 half brothers – they had the same dad but a different mom, Leah. We discussed about how Jacob had tricked Esau into his birthright. We discussed how then later Jacob was tricked by Laban and ended up with Leah and finally Rachel. We even figured out how many minutes Jacob worked to get Rachel. Great discussion and comments and then “So any questions?” A 10 year old hand goes up “I don’t understand if Jacob didn’t like Leah, why did he have so many children with her?” I almost laughed, thought of an appropriate answer and said “families needed a lot of children to tend the sheep.” And to think I left out the part that some of those 12 children Jacob fathered were conceived with his wives handmaidens. Wow, those Old Testament stories can be tricky to teach.

1. It is no longer the ER – emergency room, it is the ED – emergency department. So if the TV show “ER” was still on, would it be called “ED”?

2.If hospitals are serious about HIPAA rules, then patients need to be in private rooms. The curtain in rooms works to protect visual privacy but you can hear everything through that curtain. Just think a family member, who didn’t have permission for access to patient information could easily ask their roommate and/or their roommate’s visitors for the scoop.

3. Even if you call it a Room Service, it isn’t room service. Room service is something you order as a treat when staying in a nice hotel. It is not the food you receive during a hospital stay.

4. Portable X-ray machines are a marvel but the fact you covered the both patients in the room with a lead aprons, suggested the visitors leave the room, walked in the hall and yelled “X-ray room 7” makes you wonder if it is a good idea.

5. Thanks to smart phones you can easily google “code red, code orange and code gray”. Oh, my!!!

6. A chaplain stopping by helps.

7. Nurses and techs work very hard.

8. Acknowledging the housekeeping and transport staff is simple and gets you a smile and polite conversation the next day.

9. Having your mother’s ICU nurse say “if you are not sure where to wait, just come home” in response to the question “should we wait in the main surgical waiting room or ICU?” makes you feel safe and secure. 🙂

10. ” I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

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. 🙂