One of the biggest accidental twists in Big Brother 19 has been Christmas' foot injury. As if the injury wasn't causing enough difficulties for Christmas' game, her absence from the house for surgery is concerning a lot of the houseguests. They're concerned that Christmas has been out for surgery longer than expected, but they seem to be less worried about her health and more worried that she's getting an in-house vacation. When Christmas comes back, how will the houseguests react?
After coming in as one of the biggest physical threats in the house, her unfortunate tumble left her on crutches with a broken foot. The injury that stole Christmas away from the Big Brother house has already put her at a disadvantage in competitions. Now, after almost two days out of the house, it's also left her at a disadvantage in her social game. Even the houseguests closest to her have started second-guessing whether it's fair for her to come back to the house after being gone for this long. For example, her alliance member Paul is beginning to suspect that Christmas is taking longer than she needs to come back to the house and using her hospital time to relax, even though the American Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Society say,
"Patients that receive inpatient surgery will stay in the hospital for one or two nights after surgery. This is usually done for surgeries that are very complex, where patients may have more pain and/or discomfort than with less complex foot and ankle surgeries"
Paul's frustration with Christmas may not be exclusively related to her absence. During the live eviction, Christmas voted via phone for Ramses to be evicted. This went directly against Paul's goal for the week as he was expecting everyone to fall in line with him and evict Cody. Christmas' odd vote along with her absence from Big Brother has bred resentment in the house, but it seems that those who are upset have a massive misunderstanding about how Christmas' outside time is being spent. Being in the hospital for surgery is very different from being on vacation.
Christmas was expected to return to the house in time for the live eviction on Thursday, so her absence raises some concern. Is she okay? Did everything go alright with the surgery? These are the questions that people should be asking instead of feeling jealous. When you've spent nearly a month in the same house with the same people, the idea of getting out and going anywhere can sound appealing. However, it's unfair for people to judge Christmas because she needs to spend a little extra time in the hospital.
Christmas' health is more important than Big Brother. She is noble for wanting to stay in the game and deserves the time to fully heal before re-entering the house. While the other houseguests are right to be suspicious about her vote, questioning whether or not it's fair for her to return to the game is disrespectful to Christmas. In reality, her break from the house is nothing compared to Cameron or Jillian, who will be competing to re-enter the house in a Battle Back after being out of the house for multiple weeks. And Paul's safety from eviction for three weeks makes those three weeks more or less a vacation for him.
Christmas' passion for the game has been clear from Day 1, and, if she's willing to play the game with a broken foot, then she deserves the opportunity to fully heal before coming back to the house.
