Holiday Happenings 2007

I really had to think about this one, not because I don’t have many good memories of Christmas. Just the opposite; I have so many! I don’t remember Christmas ever being a sad time…well okay, just as soon as I said that I thought to myself, “well except for last Christmas.” Okay, clarification there, last Christmas was the most god awful Christmas of my life. Chances are if your spouse leaves the week before Christmas, the holidays might be a little somber…to say the least. HOWEVER, other than that, Christmas has been a very joyous occasion.
I think of this story that comes up EVERY year at Christmas. You know how when you’re with your family and it’s your birthday and your mom says, “well twenty nine years ago I was fat and unhappy.” Well this story goes a little like that, except I wasn’t born that year. But every Christmas Eve someone says, “Larissa, remember that Christmas…” Really, how can I forget?
It was the year I was 21. I had my tonsils out right after my last semester final at LCU. The procedure went great and I was healing really well. You always hear these bad stories about adults having difficulties healing from having their tonsils out. Well up until that point I had been doing great. I was about 2 weeks post op and I was staying at my parent’s house for the Christmas break. Christmas Eve day I just wasn’t feeling myself. I didn’t shower, which is very uncharacteristic of me. I shower every day, sometimes twice. I didn’t do my hair and all day I wore this ugly sweat suit of my mothers. I had absolutely no energy at all. Basically I looked like butt all day. That evening Colt and SuzAnne came through town. They weren’t married yet and I hadn’t been around Colt all that much. I even remember him asking if I was alright. It was very clear that something was wrong with me. Well that night I couldn’t sleep. I went into the bathroom and looked in my throat and saw that it was bleeding, and I was a little concerned. By 2 weeks you shouldn’t be bleeding anymore. I went and told my dad and he said to go to talk to mom, who was already in bed. Now mind you, my mother is a nurse. I go in there and she takes a flashlight and looks down my throat. Just about that time I start feeling really queasy. I ran to her bathroom sink, because I couldn’t make it to the toilet, and threw up. I had to keep my eyes closed, because it was so disgusting. I was puking up old clotted blood and lots of it. And it was coming out with some vengeance. (Sorry…it’s gross…but it’s my story) I start yelling at my mom, because I was a little frantic at the sight. I look over at her and I thought she was taking a nap. No, my mother, the nurse passed out. Finally she comes to, and we get my dad. We head to the emergency room in Lubbock. I was really anxious to get there, but my dad; Mr. NRA, Mr. Right wing Conservative, Mr. Obey all the laws of the land; was going the exact speed limit. Ya know, I’m pretty sure we would get an excuse if we got stopped. Probably even a police escort. But no, with his hands at ten and two, we eventually got there. I didn’t even put shoes on. I walk into the doors holding onto a trashcan that I had been using on the way up there, and I was really expecting a scene from ER. I’m looking around for Dr. Kovach or Dr. Lockhardt to help me, because I’m still a little bit freaked out. It was nothing like that. Fortunately, I did get to skip triage and go straight back. They had to keep me until I could get throwing up to see if I was going to stop bleeding, and it did. Sometime early in the morning they let us go home. On the way home I got sick again, and oh I was dreading it. I was so afraid I was going to rupture my throat. No, it was just left over cheese ball that I had been eating earlier in the day. Needless to say, I have never been able to eat that cheese ball again. My mother makes it every year at Christmas, and someone says, “Hey Larissa, want some cheese ball…hee, hee, hee.” I look back and laugh at the story now. It truly was a memorable Christmas!

Happy Holidays!!!!