Being Sick

Some people handle being sick fairly well, while others revert to overgrown babies. I usually handle it well around most people, but for some reason turn into the whiner around my partner, and I’m going to try to explore why that is.

I joke around by saying that I’ve had a chronic cold since I hit puberty, but in reality I developed allergies in the seventh grade after getting bronchial pneumonia. The cold answer makes more sense to me since I cough and blow my nose all day long, and the fact that I’ve tried multiple allergy medications with no effect. Well, that’s not true… Claritin dried out my throat and Zyrtec made me have suicidal thoughts and horrificly vivid nightmares, and neither stopped me from hocking up my lungs or blowing snot from the ever-flowing mucus reserve in my nasal passages. I’m sure my partner gets tired of my constant throat clearing, or maybe after nearly fourteen years he’s gotten used to it.

However, the issue is actual sickness here, and when I start getting sick, I start whining to my partner that I’m dying. I become the big, complaining baby. I sleep a lot, neglect my household chores, and hold a pityfest in my honor. I do all the things my partner does when he gets sick, only much, much worse. But, if I’m around other people during my illness, I say I’ve just got a touch of a cold, nothing to worry about. After a thorough review of my actions, I think I’ve figured out why: My partner is the only person I feel I can be completely myself, big, whiny baby and all. This means when I’m sick, I don’t put on a façade around him, which can be quite a relief and help me get better sooner. Why? The stress of holding it all together has to put a strain on your body, and when an illness is involved, that stress must stretch out over a week what otherwise you should have gotten over in a couple days. I’m no doctor, just making an observation, so please don’t quote me in any medical journals (without monetary compensation.)

So, as I sit here writing out this latest blog and feeling that tickle in the back of my throat my partner had a few days ago before he got ill, I’m thinking to myself, “How much can I get done today, because I can already tell that I’m not going to accomplish anything tomorrow?” Then again, that tickle could just had been aggravated from drinking beer while watching the Super Bowl and not rinsing and gargling with Listerine before going to bed, and the yeast from said beer(s) is feeding off my throat’s mucus plug.