Sick

My husband and I are two different people when we are sick. I never knew this because my husband rarely gets sick and I can honestly not remember a time while we were dating or engaged that he wasn’t healthy (unless he had a migraine). So over the last week we have learned a lot about each other as we both got sick.

For me it was the cold from hell; sore throat, runny nose, cough, chills, etc. So for the first half of last week Josh took care of me. Then he got sick. His symptoms were different though, unsettled stomach and headaches. Since I was on the rise, I of course began taking care of him.

And that ladies and gents is where the difference in the two of us comes in.

When I get sick, I get needy. I want to be held and catered to. For some reason part of me feeling better involves being treated like a baby. The more attention I get the better I end up feeling. It’s weird, I know. But I just like to be taken care of when I’m under the weather. (Let me clarify this a bit, my want to be taken care of is not in a “princess-y” kind of way. I am still capable of taking care of myself, I just like the attention).

Josh is the complete opposite. He does not even like to acknowledge that he doesn’t feel well. If I ask him his symptoms he’ll just say, “I’m fine.” (Helpful). He doesn’t want me to get things for him or cater to him at all. Which is just so hard to do, because when someone you care about is sick, you just want to help them feel better. Especially since I started out taking care of him in the way I would want to be cared for.

Our differing ideas about what it takes to feel better was an interesting discovery this week. Hopefully this sickness leaves our house and stays gone.