No, not that 911. September 11, 2001. That’s the 911 most people remember. Ours was September 11, 2018. My wife and I went to McDonald’s for an early afternoon dinner. We ordered the Signature bacon burger and the new chicken strips. They were tasty and filling.

About 6:30 that even I began to experience some abdominal discomfort. By 7:30 it had become painful and spread to my middle back. By 8:30 I was in excruciating pain.

How much pain?

I let my wife drive us to the emergency room. Pain has a scale from zero to 10. I suppose that 10 is screaming and passing out, so nine is less than 10 but I was ready to scream. I have never experienced such pain that lasted so long and only worsened as the hours went by.

The doctors in ER provided me with a morphine. Twice. Fentanyl. Once. I would have preferred twice. It took six hours for the pain to diminish. In the meantime they conducted blood tests and a CT scan both of which revealed nothing specific.

Almost.