Laura J. Davis

How many of you end up in the hospital on or around Christmas Day? Or how many of you get the flu during the holidays? For the past 26 years I have ALWAYS either being sick or have had an accident that landed me in the hospital. I'm not talking car accidents, I'm not that bad a driver! I'm talking about stupid, should have seen that coming, kind of accidents. For instance, I broke my hand one Christmas by accompanying my toddler down a slide (I didn't want him to get hurt because it was so high), somehow I bent my thumb backwards. On the plus side, I had a nice green and red Christmas cast for my solo performance in our church cantata that year! In 26 years I've sliced my hand open, sprained my ankle, broken my thumb, broken my knee, contracted pneumonia, bronchitis (and every other flu it seems), right on time for Christmas Day. Then there are the planned Christmas illnesses. How can you plan a Christmas illness you ask? Simple, you go in for surgery in November and have complications that leave you bed-ridden for December!

Just this week I had my annual Christmas visit to the hospital. On Thursday morning I cut myself shaving my legs. So? Everybody does that! Yeah, but does your bathroom look like Sweeney Todd's barbershop afterwards? I could not tell where the blood was coming from, but it was everywhere! Anyway, my husband bandaged me up and I thought things were fine, until I noticed that my leg was feeling quite hot and very red. I knew right away what it was because I have been fighting it since June - the dreaded CELLULITIS. *echo*No, not the bumps you get on your hips! That's cellulite. Cellulitis is an inflammation of the subcutaneous tissue. It can be dangerous if you don't catch it in time because it can lead to the flesh eating disease. So, for three days I had to make a trip to the hospital where I received an I.V. of antibiotics. I'm also on oral antibiotics for the next two weeks and I have to stay off my feet as much as possible. I laughed when the doc told me that. Stay off my feet? I'm not even finished my Christmas shopping yet! On the plus side, I got my annual trip to the hospital over with before Christmas Day! On the minus side - I still have 3 days left to ruin Christmas!