How do you handle illness? (spouse, retired, accident, years)
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My temperament is to lie low, sleep, take meds, see the doctor, follow instructions and slowly or rapidly get well.
When DH gets ill, it is constant complaint, relay of minute details of where it hurts, how sick he is, do we have gallons of juice if he needs it, make me something special, i am going to die but don't worry, and on and on and on.
Do you have such opposite style of dealing with sickness (i don't mean major illness.)?
How do you handle your partner's illness?
I try to take it a little easy. I do my best to just get better, take any med. I am supposed to if I've been to dr. I don't go to dr. unless I absolutely have to. My DH, on the other hand, looks for something OTC and if one dose doesn't work, try two. Then as soon as he can he is out the door back to work. Many times I have followed him around with chair, "sit. you're not supposed to be on your feet". He doesn't understand my style and I don't understand his.
I handle it like you do. My husband, however, complains and moans. Then the minute he is feeling a little better he goes out and does too much and has a relapse.
These days we're seldom ill so I had to think about it but for the most part we're both like cats when we're sick, we just want to crawl off and hide and be left alone. I'd say when it comes to caretaking we're equally solicitous and there's nobody else either one of us would want in the picture.
The one big difference is he's willing to see the doc and it's nigh near impossible to get me to go.
My temperament is to lie low, sleep, take meds, see the doctor, follow instructions and slowly or rapidly get well.
When DH gets ill, it is constant complaint, relay of minute details of where it hurts, how sick he is, do we have gallons of juice if he needs it, make me something special, i am going to die but don't worry, and on and on and on.
Do you have such opposite style of dealing with sickness (i don't mean major illness.)?
How do you handle your partner's illness?
I take a nap, tylenol or Aleve as needed, and and otherwise go on as usual.
My spouse-well..... he generally moans and groans about how he is suffering, stays in bed, it's the end of the world, LOL. I sympathize with him, tell him I know just how bad he feels because I had it too, back a week ago when he didn't notice.
We generally fast when we feel illness coming on. Vegetable broth, maybe a bit of toast, or just fluids to give our systems a chance to heal. Doing this we usually catch it in time, or at least keep it manageable.
The allergies are another matter; chronic problems are much more complex.
I usually head for my bed and sleep if I can. Sleep is so healing for me. I very thankfully am a pretty healthy woman almost 98% of the time. Before I started taking the flu shot I could count on losing a whole week to the flu. Now, as others have mentioned, allergies and sinus problems are more of an inconvenience. Tea and toast (my mother's stock answer to getting strength back when stomach can tolerate it).
Living in a senior apartment complex, residents often have grandkids visit and they run up and down the halls and probably deposit some germs along the way. So an occasional "bout" of virus might happen. Not too often, tho.
Fortunately we rarely get sick. We do see our doctor if it seems more than a cold. I think both of us verbalize our discomfort equally, and we are impatient to get better. My husband is also a "nurturer", maybe more than I am, so we do take care of each other.
The hardest times were before we retired, when working it is hard to be in two places at once. Years ago after I was in a bad car accident, my husband would come home for lunch everyday to check on me, fix lunch, and make sure I took my pain meds. I was not the most pleasant person to be around. I'm sure that took a toll on him, but he got payback after he broke several bones in his foot and I had to chauffeur him around for what seemed months.
I haven't been sick since I retired (end of June) and not much before that. However, I did take the train to work so would occasionally become ill during cold/flu season if there was a lot of sickness going around. I think my attitude while working was to actually be pleased to get a few days off. Just snuggle into my easy chair, drink some juice, and watch some crap TV.
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