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Saturday, March 20, 2010

Slice of Life - Glad that 48 hours is over!


This past Monday, my husband had a simple outpatient procedure done in his doctor's office. I took the afternoon off to be his transportation and support, and everything seemed to be going well.

Now, I'm not going to generalize about all men, but my husband can sometimes build his illnesses into something more than they really are. So, when he started moaning and complaining about how much pain he was in the next day, I am embarrassed to say it pretty much went in one ear and out the other. Not painting a very pretty picture of myself, am I?

Well, it gets worse. Turns out he was one of the 1% of people who get a specific infection caused by massive bacteria from his procedure. Thursday night, I finally took him to the emergency room (still thinking this was a lot ado about nothing), only to have the emergency room doctor tell me about the bacteria and how serious this really was.

Wow! Talk about feeling bad for all my thoughts and reactions to his moaning and groaning for the past three days. The icing on the cake was that my husband was so ill, he had to be admitted to the hospital for over 24 hours.

There are a few silver linings here:
  • his infection has been treated successfully
  • he has come home from the hospital and is feeling much better, and on the road to full recovery
  • when I told him how bad I felt about not taking his illness and complaints more seriously, after his initial disbelief, he could laugh about it a little bit
So, I probably won't earn Wife of the Year Award, but I will definitely be more willing to listen and be compassionate the next time my husband tells me he feels like heck.

Glad that 48 hours is over!!

3 comments:

  1. My disbelief is usually around my children when they say they're sick or their stomach hurts. Fast forward a few hours and I'm holding my children with high fevers and a stomach virus that runs through the house. My defense is always "the boy who cried wolf" syndrome, but in hindsight it always bites me back.

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  2. I'm glad this story has a happy ending! I, too, discounted my husband's illness and it turned out to be something serious. I know exactly how you felt, but I still say we're the tougher gender.:)

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