Christmas Plates

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Everything was festive that year at Craig’s Hospital in Englewood, Colorado, where husband Carl was a patient.
Hospitals have gone too far in making it acceptable, if not ideal, for people with spinal cord injuries and head injuries to spend Christmas away from home. The fluorescent lights above the overpass have alternating red and green panels. Large luminous wreaths hang on both sides of the bridge and at the entrance, welcoming visitors to the hospital. Decorated trees adorn the lobby, gymnasium, infirmaries and patient rooms, while festive treats grace the daily rations in the dining room.
License plates range from Iowa to Washington, Texas to Montana, and the parking lot looks like downtown Cody on a summer night. More than 300 people – patients and their families – spent Christmas in such incredible circumstances. Moreover, they vacation with people who bear little resemblance to their family and friends.
First, our feigned joy turns into sad eyes and furrowed brows in moments of unsuspecting: How sick is our wounded loved one? Also, when we order electric chairs and electric patient lifts and wonder how we can make our homes and cars “affordable”, we get shocked looks – let this sticker shock you.
From university professors to roofers, patients and families also combine jobs. How can we continue to work while caring for our wounded loved ones? Can victims be retrained to work in a new field? As expected, most people do not have the option to temporarily stop working. We all still need a paycheck.
Then a stunned look at how medical bills and insurance documents collide. Who knew there could be so much paperwork? Is this device secure? Is this exam deductible? Are we close to the maximum duration of our policy (we are close)? Do we need to add supplements to our Medicare benefits? More importantly, can we?
Most importantly, we make faces distrustful. How in the world is it possible to completely change a life in the blink of an eye? Where in our basic nature do we gather the strength to be adequate caregivers or lifelong patients? Many people talk about our courage, but few understand our daily mantra: just breathe.
This group has perhaps the strangest holiday in the history of their family, and new additions to the “before” and “after” have appeared in their vocabulary. When we see patients in wheelchairs with ventilators, assistance dogs and all sorts of other equipment, it’s almost hard to imagine that they are walking, talking and breathing normally. It’s when the family knows something we don’t know – they’re still the same person, just a little confused, that’s all.
While there really is no better place than home for the holidays, these guys have gone home to rehab. That Christmas, we all had the same desire for each other: that healing come soon, and if not, soon acceptance.
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