♫ So this is Christmas... ♪

I had already resigned myself to the fact that I will not be having a very merry Christmas, seeing as I was set to be on duty Christmas Eve (yet again). However, I did not expect to have a spectacularly sucky Christmas.

Let's start with breakfast. I didn't have any. Strike One.

I was so tired from not being able to sleep during the last 2 duties that Christmas Eve morning, I got out of bed late and I couldn't really take my time since I had to accompany Marisse on her panicked Christmas shopping. But I wasn't really hungry. For the past few days, maybe from all the stress, I was having indigestion and I felt bloated or something so yeko ra.

Shopping, shopping, shopping... then lunch. I really wanted to eat at KFC and while we had allowed for the lunch rush to subside, there were still a lot of people. I was seated at the table I was saving and Marisse was ordering our food. I really, really wanted to eat their Famous Bowl (with all the mashed potatoes drowning in gravy) BUT they did not have any. Strike Two.

We finished shopping just as the stores were about to close. (Actually, we were still at the cashier when they started turning off the lights.) I had an hour to get home and then head to the hospital. And I hadn't even wrapped my Christmas presents! (I had finished my Christmas shopping a week ago but I wasn't able to wrap them because whenever I got home from work, I, more often than not, ended up falling asleep in my work clothes, drooling on occasion.) So, with my duty bag packed and lugging around another bag with my unwrapped presents, I headed off to work, starving and optimistic that I could always have a Jollibee Christmas dinner.

I was so wrong.

Jollibee was closed and so was the convenience store in the gasoline station nearby. Well, I really couldn't get rightfully pissed because who was I to begrudge their employees their Christmas celebrations? Anyway, I trudged back to the hospital and made a Christmas Eve feast of the instant noodles I had purchased weeks before in the event of food emergencies. I just didn't think it'd be on Christmas Eve. Strike Tres..

I wasn't hungry anymore but neither was I satisfied. And it seemed like the hospital grinch was following me. I got a ward call for an IV insertion and when I entered the patient's room, there was the Christmas Feast I could not have. So while I was inserting an IV on his left hand, said patient was gorging himself on various meats and sweets with his right hand. Rub it in, why don't you.

My ward shift ended and just when I thought that the fates would not be so cruel as to send me admissions on Christmas Day, a 3-year old was brought in by his mother at 3 in the morning because of a 4-day fever. *sigh* The kid was foul-mouthed, too. Not because of all that vomiting, but mostly in reference to all the cursing. The mother was trying to placate him by threatening him with an angry baby Jesus but the kid continued summoning the devil, screaming, "Yawa!"

Dear Doctor,

Good morning and Merry Christmas. I would like to inform you that you have an admission. Yes, on Christmas Day. Three year old male, in for 4 days fever and vomiting. Clear breath sounds, non-hyperemic tonsils, mild dehydration. History of previous febrile seizures. Neurologic status: GCS 14-15, drowsy, irritable, possessed. No history of illicit drug use or previous exorcism. Diazepam 3mg IV prn for seizure, restlessness and general evil. Patient admitted at Station 4C, just above the hospital chapel.

Love,

Farina

At 12 noon today, my duty ended. I still have 12 hours left to Christmas but I have a feeling I will end up asleep in my work clothes again, most likely drooling on my pillow.

But that's okay. I'm optimistic. Jesus wasn't even born on the 25th. I can have my Christmas some other day. (Like on Sunday! During the annual 4R and Friends Christmas Party!)