I actually started this blog entry whilst sitting in the
Charlotte airport on Near Year’s Eve- but then I boarded the plane to LA and got
swept up into regular life. I originally wrote about how very
grateful I was to have time off this year to celebrate Christmas at home with
my family on Seabrook. Reading this stirred up the bittersweet feelings
that I now associate with holidays. Some part of me still clings to a child-like
belief that I deserve those days off-
that everyone deserves to spend the holidays at home with family. But my
adult self knows better. Holidays aren’t a given for everyone.
Just like the Charlotte airport, hospitals don’t
close for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Viruses don’t stop spreading and emergent surgeries
can’t be placed on hold. And what about the patients already in the hospital-
the ones with whom I work? They still have ongoing needs regardless of the date
or the time. I always tell people that my job is Monday-Friday, year-round.
Of course, it isn’t just hospital workers. Police
and first responders, pilots and public transit workers, concession stand workers
and gas station attendants, and many more, I’m sure, are subjected to the
unfairness of this adult reality as well.
A holly, jolly Christmas with family isn’t
always par for the course. The truth is that holidays are difficult time for
many. That swirl of holiday emotions is often magnified in a hospital setting- one
patient may feel exponentially more lonely because she is being cared for by
strangers instead of loved ones while her neighbor is just feeling grateful to
be alive after a head-on collision. One gentleman is coming to grips with a
terminal diagnosis and knows that this Christmas will be his last while the
woman across the hall is feeling jubilant and hopeful after a successful
transplant surgery. Yet another is engulfed in a bout of hospital-acquired delirium
and misses Christmas all together. It can be difficult for me to share in my
patients’ emotional journeys- on Christmas and every day- but it certainly
helps to put life into perspective and to keep me feeling grateful for all that
I have.
Wherever this holiday season found you and
whatever emotions it brought to light, I hope you were able to bid adieu to
2017 with a spirit of gratitude. May we all find joy amidst the chaos in 2018!
