I am heartily ashamed of myself right now, but hopefully my mistake can encourage some of you to be better prepared.

This evening was taking my girls to meet their dad, for his visitation, and we came upon a horrible accident. Hydroplane city, with the fresh sprinkle of rain on the interstate, and a holiday weekend, people headed out of Nashville, end of week traffic, it was the perfect storm of car accidents. Probably 5-6 cars (one was a truck pulling a uhaul trailer) at different stages of fender-bender land, and two more banged up beyond that. And one horribly wrapped around a tree. The SUV was completely mangled, with about 8 adult men trying to wrench open doors and pull people out. Someone was helping a woman who was in the ditch, holding a small child with a large bandage to its head. Many people were stopping and pulling over, rushing to help.

Naturally I pulled over and popped the trunk, with a FF/EMT husband I have a very respectable trauma/first aid kit, in a good sized Rubbermaid container. My theory on this is that even if there is a bunch of stuff in there that I personally am not qualified to use (though my hubby could, being a first responder, FF, former medic, etc), there is always the chance that a dr, nurse, or off-duty ems professional will stop, and I'd rather have the stuff than not. To my horror, I opened the trunk to find.....it was EMPTY! His fire bag was in there, with his fire gear, but the kit was GONE.

Yesterday he had cleaned out the car, the trunk, did a full detailing of the inside and out, the trunk, the works. I guess all those animal crackers under the booster seats finally got to him. Today he took "Sherman" to work (the Suburban that's older than I am) so I could take the car and the kids. Well, somehow, the first aid stuff never made its way back into the car. I knew not everything had made it back in, because I had to put the carseat base back in there before we left. It never occurred to me to check the trunk...

Of course I called him and asked where the HELL the kit was, ya know, my own special way of making a bad situation worse. Oy. I just felt so HELPLESS, and felt like such a complete IDIOT for not being prepared. I know better, dammit!

I was only pulled over less than two minutes and heard the sirens, so we got out of the way. As I continued to my destination, several more EMS vehicles went flying that way. I said a prayer, and told my girls that whenever you see the ambulances go by, you are supposed to say a prayer for them and whoever they are "rescuing".

So....there you have it folks! I hope you all have at the very least a basic first aid kit in your vehicle. Doesn't have to be fancy, anything is better than an nothing. Might not be a bad Christmas gift idea for friends and family, also, to have a half way decent first aid kit for their vehicles. You never know when you will need it, and not have it!