Preparing for a Family Health Crisis: Tools to Have and Things to Keep in Mind

Just last night, there were Christmas cookies in the oven, a nice holiday special on television - and a strange ringing noise in the background. What was it? Oh, yeah, the phone. At nearly midnight. This didn't exactly complete the picture of a quiet seasonal evening.

As it turned out, a relative had a blood clot and all her closest kin were out of town. So I grabbed my coat and rushed over. Once there,it became clear that a trip to the emergency room was necessary. So were two nights in the hospital - and now I'm writing this while it is fresh in my memory.

I spent one night in the emergency room, trying to sleep on a couple of hard plastic chairs and then on a chair in her hospital room. The blankets provided by the hospital were very thin (thin blankets are lightweight and reduce bedsores).But those thin blankets and an unreliable room thermostat left me shivering all night.
Admittedly, the priority wasn't about my comfort but I was left groggy and semi-alert, not the best shape for a patient advocate. Thinking ahead could have helped me be a better advocate for my relative.

The odds that you'll face this situation - or a similar one - actually go up during the holiday season. Not only is the weather likely to be icy and cold in many parts of the United States, making driving hazardous, but Christmas-related injuries and illnesses (from improper wiring of Christmas trees to food poisoning or indigestion) rise significantly during the holiday season.

Need proof? Here's a link which indicates that the holidays are among the most stressful and dangerous of the year, as people climb onto roofs to sting Christmas lights and saw the bottoms off of Christmas trees to get them to fit into stands: www.nsc.org/seasonal_safety.htm

According to that info from the National Safety Council, hospital emergency rooms treat about 12,500 people annually for falls, cuts, shocks and burns from faulty holiday lights, other decorations and dried-out Christmas trees. Traffic accidents rise when people combine a few too many cups of eggnog with driving on icy streets. So it makes sense to have a game plan in case you have to rush off to the emergency room.