Christmas, Not!

Christmas never came this year.

On Christmas Eve,

we dined lavishly with new friends.

And then pain kept Dave awake

most of the night.

We packed a hurried bag in darkness

and took an early ferry to St. Thomas.

Christmas Day was spent in the ER

where eventually our suspicions were confirmed –

kidney stone on the move!

Meanwhile a poor in-house internet service

meant we couldn’t talk to our grandchildren,

couldn’t participate even vicariously in their

Christmas morning excitement.

We held each other and wept.

The next day we boarded a plane for Ft. Lauderdale

and checked in to Broward Medical Center.

Their ER staff were amazing –

kind, helpful, and efficient to a fault –

and we were soon ensconced in room 456

awaiting a urologist visit.

Dave’s pain had abated

(the stone was so big it got stuck and quit moving!)

so the urologist came Sunday,

a procedure was scheduled for Tuesday,

and they kept him to recover ‘til New Year’s Day.

Living in the hospital for a week

is a surreal experience.

456 was a private room thankfully,

and they brought me a fold-up bed

so I didn’t have to sleep in a chair.

We rearranged the furniture.

We shared Dave’s hospital meals.

I wore the same clothes for days

and washed out my underwear in the bathroom sink.

Dave was tethered to an IV pole and a heart monitor

but I didn’t venture far either --

a twisted ankle just before Christmas

still had me hobbling around.

We read books and wrote emails and talked on the phone.

We chatted with all the nurses.

We tracked our health insurance coverage

and rearranged our return flights several times.

And we waited.

For New Year’s Eve I bought

a bottle of red wine and a bouquet of yellow mums

and we supplemented our baked chicken dinner

with shrimp cocktail and chocolate-dipped strawberries.

A needed bit of fun!

But we were in bed long before 

the ball dropped in Times Square,

and the next morning we began the 2-day trip 

to get back to the boat.

It’s not a Christmas we want to

remember or ever repeat

(though it’s one we won’t easily forget)!

Awaiting us on board were the few gifts

we had wrapped to exchange –

which we did gratefully,

and made our peace with the

Christmas that wasn’t.

It will make next year’s holiday

all the more sweet!

tuesday, 5 january, 2016

the twelfth day of Christmas
Penns Landing