A year ago today I weaned myself from the ventilator!

I didn't know at the time that I was done with that machine. The weaning had been going on for several days, going without the vent for an increasing number of hours at a time (hooked up with a plastic tube shooting oxygen towards the trach hole for those hours). Each night, the respiratory therapist had hooked me back up to the vent to sleep. But on this day a year ago, I went without the vent all day and, when it was time to enter into my nightly drug-induced "sleep," the respiratory therapist said, "Are you ready to go without it tonight?" What an exciting prospect -- and also what a fearful request! Would it be dangerous? The therapist said, "Don't worry. I'll watch you closely. If we need to, we can put you back on it quickly." (Thank God for those who watch and wait and serve overnight.)

As it happened that I did ok overnight, and then I continued without the vent into the next day, and eventually we realized that I was weaned! A couple of days later there were smiles all around when the respiratory therapist came into my room in the Progressive Ventilator Care Unit and said, "Well, you don't need this machine anymore. Let me roll it out of here. It's just taking up room."