Pre-Hospital Christmas

I've been in this business for about 24 years, give or take. It's been a full time job, it's been a part time job, it's been a volunteer job. It's taken me around the world to some fantastic places and allowed me to meet some wonderful people everywhere, a lot of whom I'm still friends with and converse with on a regular basis. One thing has always stayed constant, no matter where I've been or what I've been doing; the holidays.

Oft times I was the "low man" for seniority and had to work the holidays. I was young, not married with no kids, and it didn't bother me all that much. I love being home for Christmas but not being there sometimes is part of life for whatever reason. So I usually accepted it but tried to make amends somehow. The holidays have always been fun for me by spending time with family and friends, catching up, playing cards, and eating an obscene amount of food.

As I look back on the past couple decades I can see my holiday season somehow always intertwined with EMS, the FD, or work, and the memories are about Christmas. I know that there will be many more to come and lots more memories that will flood in ten years from now but I remember these very well.

Let's see; I was late picking up my date to a Christmas dance one year because I was on an ambulance run. I didn't have to go but I was in town, felt the need to help out and hoped like hell my date would forgive me. It didn't go over too well but we had a fun night.

Christmas Day all over the world and pulling them all together is interesting. I've volunteered on Christmas Day many  times and usually it's very quiet around our hometown. I can't really remember a lot going on until later on in the afternoons when most of the presents have been opened and the lunches had already been served. Yeah, we've had the occasional choking because gramma stuffed her mouth a little too full with turkey and stuffing or grandpa slipped and fell outside trying to help little Joe ride his new big wheel that Santa brought. FYI, big wheels don't have a lot of traction on ice; neither do patent leather shoes, grandpa!

I've spent many a Christmas Day overseas or offshore. I had a couple terrific Christmas Day dinners in the Persian Gulf with "family" and friends. I remember the best present I got one year happened to be a case of beer. I thought it was a little odd but it served as a terrific present from my "Gulf Mom."

I remember moving a rig in Nigeria on Christmas Eve. I was sitting in the wheelhouse eating peanut M & Ms, drinking a Coke, and tracking Santa on NORAD's website and announcing over the rig's PA system where Santa was located. At midnight someone else beat me to saying, "Merry Christmas" on the PA. I was bummed someone else beat me to it. After all the hard work I put in to finding out where Santa was and that had to happen. Man,...

The first Christmas I spent in Louisiana was fun. I was told by a partner earlier in the year that I'd be in shorts and a t-shirt on Christmas Day. Being from the Midwest I laughed. Lunacy is what I thought about that. No way, impossible, couldn't happen. On Christmas Day I happened to be working and was taken over to my partner's house in Amite. We had a terrific morning, lunch, and afternoon at Jeff's house. I was taken in by his family and treated as one of their own. They even had a small present for me, which I was totally surprised by. He was one of my favorite partners to work with since that day and I always tried to work with him when I could just because he was such a terrific, down-to-Earth kinda guy. And, I had on shorts that day.

Usually the offshore bunch gets treated very well. Mind you, we're at work away from family but we're with our second family. It, like any other normally celebrated holiday, is just another normal workday for us. I've fried turkeys offshore on holidays. I've grilled red snapper (yummm) for Christmas dinner. The good thing is, most of the drilling and production companies spare little expense when it comes to the holiday meals. Filet, shrimp, lobster, whatever. The catering staff always managed to decorate the galley and office areas with tinsel and light and other hanging things. In the Gulf of Mexico I used to take strands of lights and line the boom of our 120' bow crane to make it in to a huge Christmas tree.

I surprised my mom one year when nobody expected me to come home for Christmas because of work. I took a couple days off work, drove all night to get home, and walked in gramma's back door and right up to mom and surprised the hell out of her. One of the few times I'd ever seen her cry because she was happy. That was a good day and I'm smiling just thinking about it.

Probably one of the hardest EMS runs I've ever dealt with happened many years ago on Christmas Day and I think about it each and every year; about the run, the little girl, the people I worked with, how we worked our asses off that day, and that little girl's family. I cried that day and it still chokes me up just thinking about all the details I can so vividly remember about what happened. Wow, what a day! It went from one extreme to the other. We all went from doom and gloom to cheering and happy in that hospital ER.

And now I get to spend my Christmas Days at home with my family. My wife of ten plus years, our three kids, one dog, gazillion cats, and whoever else decides to show up. Our son "knows" about Santa and the two girls know he's the guy that brings all the presents. What's really neat is one of the gentlemen who "plays" Santa locally is good pals with my in-laws. So they see him a couple times a year and he always remembers them. Santa knows what's going on, trust me. They believe it and in him.

Seeing their faces light up when they see the cookies have been eaten, the milk's almost gone, the crumbs on the fireplace hearth, and ALL those presents under the tree makes it worthwhile. Santa is their pal. He brings them all the goodies and toys they've wanted all year long. They're so happy and carefree that morning, or at least until they see a toy the other child has that they wanted and didn't get. Then all hell breaks loose and it's every person for themselves.

This Christmas season has been full of surprises and one I'll remember for a long time, if not always. It's been full of trials and tribulations, of hard work and taking time off, dealing with illnesses and families who are having difficulties, a bad economy and a lot of people needing a little assistance just to get through the holidays. It's had one hell of a surprise with Chris and Kari, and a wedding or two to boot. What's similar here to all of these is that in some way, shape, fashion or form, they all (for me) somehow tie back to EMS and the people we're involved with.

Christmas isn't about toys and presents. It's about giving, sharing, remembering, loving and caring, taking care of each other and watching out for everyone else. It's about Christ and His miracles which we've seen already this year firsthand. Put all those things together, dash in a little EMS and who we are and what we do. Now you have one mixed up bag of stuff that most normal people wouldn't be able to make heads or tales of. But we know. We understand. We, the First Responders, EMTs, Paramedics, Firefighters, deal with it day in and day out. We are a huge family that remembers all of the little things, what it used to be like then and what it's like now yet we persevere and continue doing it each and every day because we love our jobs. We love helping other people. We love being a part of such a huge family.

Merry Christmas to all and a safe and healthy New Year.

A Christmas Miracle In The Works

"wow, just WOW. i'll be smiling all day, all week,...:)"

 

That's what I put as a facebook status earlier this morning. Just one of those life events that happens to people that I hear about and it makes me smile; gives me hope and cause to know that there is still a lot of good that happens to people. I've had a lot of good happen to me but this one isn't about me or my family. It's about two other very good friends of ours who have been blessed not once, but twice in the last year or so. Sit a minute, read further, and I'll explain without a lot of detail. By the end you'll see why I'm smiling, why everyone who knows the story is smiling.

 

 

On August 21, 1976 Kari Anne Hoppes was born. Little did anyone know that this little girl, less than 5 months later, would be going through chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and ultimately a nephrectomy (kidney removal) for a cancerous tumor found on one of her kidneys. Of course nobody wants to hear of things like that happening to anyone, let alone a child, a baby, someone who is defenseless and brand new to the world. I guess thankfully she didn't understand what was happening to her frail little body and hopefully wouldn't remember the pain and trials she went through.

 

As life went on she grew up normally, minus one kidney. She graduated high school, became an EMT, went to college and graduated as a nurse who currently works in an emergency room helping others. She's been devoted to a life of serving, caring, and helping those who are sick and injured.

 

Somewhere in the middle she met her future husband, Chris. They dated for a while and then broke up. Eventually they got back together again and finally got married on March 10, 2001. Next year they'll celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. Chris is a firefighter, paramedic, and flight medic who is always on the go, working wherever he's needed, whenever he's called, but knows that family always comes first.

 

After they got married their house was a little empty so they got a couple "children." Duke and Hunter were their babies, BIG babies. A Mastiff and chocolate Labrador make for some large babies to handle but they were babied and pampered like no other. They were terrific companions and guardians to their "parents" and to the house.

 

After trying to conceive a child without success Chris and Kari decided to try and adopt a child, something they both very badly wanted in their lives; a namesake to call their own.

 

A phone call came unexpectedly one afternoon in late 2009 asking if they were still interested in adopting a little newborn boy. Without hesitation they both instantly said, "YES!" Later that evening they were at the hospital to pick up and bring home their, "gift from Heaven," as Chris calls him. Joshua now graces their house with pattering hands and feet, coos and cries of a normal one year old child, and keeps his parents smiling from ear to ear as they've become ever the doting parents. He IS their pride and joy.

 

Now over the last couple months Kari's health has deteriorated as her lone kidney continues to decline in function to the point of failure. Lots of doctors visits have happened to discuss treatments, outcomes, and prognoses and what could be done to help stave this off or to fix the problem. She's had a couple recent surgeries which is one of the short term options to help. During this time she's been off work, reduced in her abilities to function normally, even to the point of no driving or lifting up Joshua to carry him around.

 

Kari has been placed on a transplant list for a kidney. Here a lifelong care provider now needs help to continue to live normally. It's almost to the point of not being fair: here she has helped others for many years yet this has to happen to her while she's still young. She was dealt a bum hand, overcame the initial odds and has survived while still helping others. Why her? Why now? With all the good that has just recently come in to their lives, why this?

 

Chris told me a couple weeks ago that he was going to get tested to see if by some miracle that he could be a compatible donor for Kari. The odds of that are very slim but he wanted to check anyway. I don't think it was a huge secret but it wasn't one he made too public. A lot of people knew what was happening with Kari and like a normal loving husband he wanted to see if he could help out in any way. He told me that if he was compatible that this, "would be the greatest Christmas present I could ever give her."

 

They were at dinner last night at a local restaurant, full of other patrons eating their dinner, and with Kari's mom. Chris' cell phone rang during dinner. It was the doctor's office. They'd called to give him the results of their compatibility testing. He told me that he said, "You want to give me the results now???" But they gave him the unexpected results and all he could do was think of how he could tell Kari what had happened, what he'd done, and what the results were.

 
He was a match.
 
He leaned over and told her everything. After he got done she screamed with joy and excitement. Chris told me that everyone in the packed restaurant looked their way as the three of them hugged and cried with this wonderful news. It's December, the time of giving, the time of joy and blessings, and the time for God's miracles to be celebrated. This, is most definitely one of them.

 

The work's not over yet but the hardest task of determining compatibility is. A husband is compatible to his wife and will give part of himself to let her continue her young life healthy and happy, to be able to do things normally, and get back to some sense of normalcy. 

 

As a friend to both I couldn't be happier for them. I couldn't be prouder of Chris for what he's done and will do. I couldn't be smiling more for their family for what they've been through and the blessings they've received in the last year. God works wonders and this is no exception.

 

Smiling. That's all I've done all day today when I've thought about them and all they've gone through, all they've shared with me, all the headaches and heartaches they've had, and knowing that hopefully, God willing, all will soon be over. This is turning out to be one of the best love stories I've ever known.

 

"wow, just WOW. i'll be smiling all day, all week,... :)"