Facts and A Myth

Fact: Tater is great and none the worse for the wear after yesterday. In fact, he's perfect.
Fact: It takes 2 minutes for a fire truck with EMS guys to get to our house
Fact: It takes a really good friend to know without word that you need her to drive you 90 miles/hour to your house
Fact: LBird can make the drive from the pool to our house in less than a minute (LBird is now Danica, as in Danica Patrick the race car driver)
Fact: I can run very fast in flip flops
Fact: We have the best nurse in the world
Fact: Tater loves to be bagged because he's a strange child
Fact: You can prepare for every emergency involved with a trach or a ventilator and it will still take you 30 minutes to realize a plastic filter has caused the ventilator to malfunction
Fact: You can throw a plastic filter pretty far when you're frustrated

Seriously, everything is fine. Yesterday was a great test of the emergency protocol we have for Tater without an actual emergency having to take place. Tater was never in any distress. The filter was cracked and the ventilator worked fine after I replaced it. Our nurse did everything she was supposed to do and we realized a couple of things we hadn't gone over so now she's truly prepared for an emergency. And we were able to meet the captain of the fire station close to our house and the EMS guys are now familiar with Tater and his stuff. I made the guys some muffins and we're going to be big buds, I can tell. Of course, Mr. Awesome was on his way home from being out of town. All the big stuff happens during or just after a trip of his (no pressure Honey!).

And now for a myth: you can ignore something and it won't happen. Ugh. The fact is, Danica and I planned a trip before all of Tater's trach stuff. We put money down and planned everything around Christmas, but after a 3 month hospital stay with the Tater I just couldn't see taking the trip. I didn't want to think about it so I thought it would go away if I didn't. I know I need a break and blah, blah, blah. The thought of leaving my boys is agonizing after everything that has happened. But Mr. Awesome was very insistent that I still go and things started falling into place: we have a great nurse who loves Tater, Mr. Awesome's aunt is coming to town for a couple of the days I'll be gone to help out, Wissa wants Toser to come to her house the rest of the time, Mr. Awesome won't have to take off of work... So early Thursday morning, Danica and I are hopping on a plane and going to an all-inclusive place in Costa Rica with my parents and a couple of their friends.

I'M CRAZY!! It's actually faster for me to get to Costa Rica than to the West Coast but I'll be out of the country and my baby might need me. I'm not worried about who I'm leaving him with because in all honesty, Mr. Awesome and the nurse are probably more alert to things than I am. I'm worried about how I'M going to survive thinking about him all the time. Hopefully some yummy margaritas will take the edge off that and Danica won't let me pine tooo much. Ugh. I'm seriously nauseous right now. I know I'll survive. Tater will survive. It will be a funny story in 20 years (Tater at 21- "Yeah, when I was 14 months old and on a ventilator, my mom took a trip to Costa Rica. Can you believe she abandoned me like that?") We get back Monday so we won't be gone for too long and hopefully Danica will still be my friend after 5 days of listening to me worry about my boys.