The Bengal Dancers Team flew to Florida on Thursday. My text from Katie was: hey, I’m on the plane to Orlando. It’s nonstop booo haha. (January 14, 9:44am.)
She knew that our plane tickets had 2 stops. That evening I drove from Twin Falls to Pocatello. I was meeting 3 other mom's to drive to Salt Lake City tonight. But, they weren't ready, and it was 11pm by the time we left Pocatello.
JANUARY 15, 2010, Friday
On January 15th I flew to Florida with 3 other mom's and a 16 month old girl. (the daughter of the youngest Bengal dancer). We left our hotel room at 6:30am to leave for the airport. (And we just went to bed at 2:30am). We spent a long exhausting day traveling.
text from Katie: I hope your traveling goes ok today! Let me know how it’s going! We’re gonna go practice and play! (that was thoughtful of Katie)
I was hurrying to the gate for our connecting flight in the Atlanta airport when I received a phone call. “Katie is OK, but she is in an ambulance headed to the hospital.” Her coach explained that she choked on some chicken and couldn’t swallow. As soon as we disconnected I read the text that arrived while my phone was off on my first flight: text from Katie: I can’t swallow I’m choking 2:50pm At first I thought, oh it’s just like Ben, he’s been through it, and then I got al upset. Katie was so far away, in the emergency room, and I was stuck in Atlanta waiting for a late plane. My son Ben talked to me and calmed me down.
text from Katie: Might as well call me Ben Jr., haha
3:24pm By the time my plane landed in Orlando, Katie’s coach Hilliary said the procedure was done, and she was just waiting for Katie to wake up. They put Katie out and removed the piece of chicken and stretched her throat from a 12 to a 15. (the normal size is 20) I tried to decide if I should take a taxi to the hospital. But I ended up traveling with our group to the hotel, and taking forever to get checked in to our room, and walking all over the place. I kept in contact with Coach Hilliary and Katie at the hospital. Afterwards the hospital did another x-ray of Katie, and then they wanted to see if she could swallow soft food. They finally arrived back at the hotel around 8pm and the team was practicing out in the parking lot. Katie attempted to join them, but she was still unsteady and her coach made her sit down. By the time I saw Katie we were finally in the cafeteria getting something to eat. What a relief to see my beautiful daughter Katie coming towards me. She ate 2 bowls of ice cream for dinner. This was a stressful day.
(I left my camera cord in Twin Falls,so I will post pictures later.)
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