Why I Believe in Santa Claus - 2010 Tribute, Part 4

Last night when my son set up the milk for Santa and filled his wishlist, I wished pink health for all, especially my wife who has been suffering from a gastro-enterological ailment for the last 4 days and the 5 day old boy of our new neighbours.

The wife comes first. She has been trying her trusted home remedies for the last 4 days and every morning she would wake up saying she was feeling better, only to get worse through the day. By Thursday, it was clear to me that she needed medical attention but she seemed to think differently. She made a half hearted attemt to reach her GI specialist on Friday morning but told me that their offices were closed as it was Christmas eve and continued with her home remedeies.

What forced me to put her on Santa's wish list on Christmas eve was that after 6 to 7 hours of rest that day, she was still in pain. She had endured this for 4 days and if I had this same pain I wouldn't have lasted even 1.

Cut to Christmas AM. After I had woken up at 4 AM and been on the road for another 6 to fetch the grandmother of the ailiing neighbour's kid from JFK International, my wife offered me a hot cup of tea and asked me if I could try the doctor again. I tried and got the voicemail and left a message which I had been promised would be returned the next business day, which was 2 days away. The other 2 options on the voicemail were to either call 911 if it was an emergency or if the caller was a hospital or a doctor's office, to call the messaging service.

I started to think that I may need to go the ER route, when my son came and asked me why Santa had not given me my wish of pink health for my wife. "I believe in him and he will make her alright today", I said. I did not know what prompted me to say that but I immediately picked up the phone and called the doctor's office again and heard the menu options clearly. "You are calling after office hours", it said. "If this is an emergency, call 911, if this is a hospital or a doctor, call xyz number to reach the messaging service and all others please leave a message and we will respond on the next business day". I noted the messaging service number and called them.

They picked up after the 2nd ring and asked me who I was and I told them I was the husband of the patient of Dr. Chauhan. "What's your wife's name?", was the next question. After I had spelled from P for Peter to A for Apple on the first name and from L for Larry to N for Nancy on the last name, she asked me what the problem was. I mentioned the problem and the lady on the line told me that she would page the doctor and that someone would be in touch with us shortly and also took down my phone number.

Ten minutes later, at noon on Christmas day (Saturday), our phone rang and on the line was Dr. Chauhan. My wife explained to him what her problem was and he told her what she needed to do for redress and also promised to call in a prescription to the closest pharmacy. At 2 PM, I collected the medicines and aftee lunch, she took them and took an afternoon nap.

She woke up at 6 PM and when she walked into the kitchen for her tea, I knew my wife was back. It's 10 minutes to midnight and she has cleared the laundry, served us dinner, cleaned up after, helped my son clean up his closet and we have been watching TV for the last couple of hours, enjoying every minute of this saturday evening.

And even as we were doing all this, I received a call from our neighbours who are in the hospital that their 5 day old son is doing fine and is functioning normally, though he will still be there until tomorrow night in order to receive the results of all the tests, but the doctors say he is stable.

We're now watching Michael Jackson's Black or White on youtube and he just sang the line "I believe in miracles and a miracle has happened tonight". Michael and Santa must have caught up at some point today, maybe over a cup of hot chocolate and marshmallows...

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

P.S. Somewhere between all this, My son got what he asked for, a Mario Kart Wii game with a steering wheel. Thank you Santa!!!