Momma- I need to wear my new cowboy boots...

Back in the pre-Benji days, we used to take family vacations. Now, we apparently take summer trips to medical conferences that combine fun with education, to ensure that our child who is missing more pieces than the puzzles on his bedroom bookshelf grows up with the unshakeable belief that different is okay and so that his parents (who are obviously not doctors) can get the needed info to halfway make informed medical decisions about those missing puzzle pieces (aka organs).

I meant to blog on our trip to AZ months ago, but summer kinda got away from me, the kids started school, I had a million job interviews, etc, etc... By now, I've talked to most everyone who's probably interested in how the trip went so I'll spare everyone all the details. Except for the picture above....

Yes, that is our little Benji meeting Tony Bell, a pro bullrider who just also happens to have an ostomy. I had heard about Tony a couple of years ago and had thought at the time that it would be sort of cool if Benji could ever meet him, as long as he didn't think that he needed to grow up and do dangerous things like riding on angry, snorting bulls after meeting him.

Hahaha. The jokes on me!

And what is our little guy doing in that pic? Yeah, he's telling Tony that he's putting a plastic cowboy hat table decoration on his head and telling Tony that he's gonna grow up to be just like him and ride bulls. Rweally, rweally mean bulls!

Now, if that doesn't paralyze me in fear and make my heart skip a beat!

He spent the rest of the night telling me that we needed to go home to get his John Deere cowboy boots. Sure Benji, I'll fly right back to SD and get those!

During a speech, Tony told a story of an injury he sustained which led to xrays which led to the doctor informing him that he was missing his tailbone. Will found that hilarious. I guess that's one of the hidden benefits of being born with sacral agenesis, huh?

I didn't know if Benji would "get it" that Tony, or the other numerous children and adults who had or have had ostomies, at the conference were like him. He not only got it...he came back talking about it. It made a huge impact on his little brain to meet other people with similar experiences. He checked out a belly or two, kissed a baby with an ostomy, compared "buttons" with a new friend, and rocked the pool with his ostomy bag on. When another child vomitted on the floor, Benji came running to tell me that the other child needed some Zofran. And to make sure that I knew that it was not HIS puke on the floor. Hmmm...glad I'm not the only parent out there with a child who randomly pukes.

Our trip was everything I imagined it to be- complete with great memories for Will, role models and new friends for Benji, and the chance for me to reconnect with old friends and connect with parents of other children who we had only read about through the PTN and VACTERL Network up until this point. We met some wonderful adults who had ostomies as children (Will, along with every other male above the age of two fell a bit in love with a beautiful young woman named Amy), had a great experience of feeding the Javelinas every morning from our hotel room deck (google them), and enjoyed night swimming under in the desert. We came home with a three year old eager to try his new obsession out by riding the schnauzer through the kitchen. Eddie was not amused.

So, back to the picture....

....if you are a parent of a PTN child, I would highly recommend that you NOT go to the 2012 conference....

....unless you are open to accepting with a smile that someday that NICU baby who you spent MONTHS learning how to keep an ostomy bag on, is gonna tell you to go sit down so that he can talk to his "cowboy friend with tummy problems."

Thanks to my friend Janel for the picture. Afterall, I was told to get out of the way! :)