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Whining Floppy Man Self

When I received a mono diagnosis last week, one of my wife’s friends said, “Now when he lays around whining, he has a good reason.” For once! Here was what my day was like yesterday: Up at 7 am. Drank my customary three large cups of coffee. Blogged. Back to sleep at 10. Woke up […]

When I received a mono diagnosis last week, one of my wife’s friends said, “Now when he lays around whining, he has a good reason.”

For once! Here was what my day was like yesterday:

Up at 7 am. Drank my customary three large cups of coffee. Blogged. Back to sleep at 10. Woke up at noon, blogged, went back to sleep at 1:30. Woke up at 5. Blogged. Back to bed by 9.

I basically slept 16 or 17 hours out of 24 — and I still woke up tired. I’m really fortunate to have blog software that lets me get a bunch done while I’m awake, and spread out the posting. I can’t tell you how anxious I am about the work I’m not getting done, in part too because I often have a headache, and can’t focus well. It’s kind of freaking me out that my 78 year old father, who is not in the best health, is a lot more active these days than I am.

Did I mention to you my strange new respect for the infirm? This stuff is like the day you get the flu, all the time. Has been for a couple of months. Might last till Christmas.

Don’t pray for me — pray for my wife. She has to put up with my floppy, whining man self until then. And so we get to the point of this post: is there a difference between the way men and women react to illness? I mean, I’ve heard my wife and her friends observe that husbands complain and complain and complain when they get sick, whereas wives just suck it up and carry on. This could be a comic meme, but I suspect there’s some truth to it, though I can’t imagine why that would be. I appeal to my female readers for enlightenment.

UPDATE: It has not escaped my notice that my late sister, who had STAGE FOUR CANCER, never complained about how sick she was, and kept smiling and carrying on as if everything was fine.

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