My Home Nurse

It has been a hard 10 days at our house. First was Christmas – and we decided to leave for Tahd’s parents a full 24 hours than we had originally planned due to weather. Can we say stress??? Then we drove home Christmas night and finished our last-minute things (the things we would have done before Christmas during the 24 extra hours) to prep us for my family’s Christmas celebration. Monday morning we woke up bright dark and earlyto head to the hospital for my surgery. Since that time Tahd has been waiting on me and caring for me and generally trying to nurse me back to health. Raw deal for his vacation, huh?

Tahd is very much a worker – he is constantly working on projects, doing chores and making lists and getting things from said lists completed. He hasn’t been able to do that this week (he’s been off since the 23rd), at least to the degree he’d normally prefer. Corralling Gabe and keeping me sane have taken a good chunk of his time. This lack of productivity has equaled a great deal of inner angst on his part. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that a small part of me is glad he’s going back to work today – not because I want to do this myself (AACK! So. Not. Ready!) or because I don’t enjoy his company, but because if he doesn’t get something done he is going to eat himself from the inside out.

For my part, I don’t think I’ve been the easiest patient. I can’t sleep during the day because I have to arrange everything just so – including my medication schedule – and it is too much to coordinate during the day (i.e. requires more medicine that I think I should take). Sleep requires some sort of decongestant so one nostril is slightly clear – but not so clear that it burns – and then requires enough pain killer that not only is the pain gone but I also don’t care that I can’t breathe very well. It’s a fine line, I tell you. Anyway, I’m tired, extremely uncomfortable, have been bleeding pretty much nonstop, and have gauze pads strapped to my face. Can we say cranky?

All that to say it’s hard to make a cranky person happy. The one thing on Tahd’s “to-do” list for the past 7 days has been to keep me as happy as possible. The fact that he has been unable to keep me even near the neighborhood of happiness has come off to him like a big fat fail on his part and has only increased his personal angst. And then I get irked at him for being irked in general and it turns into a big fat argument. I snort and snarl during these arguments, but that’s mostly due to the nose surgery. Mostly.

I want a Christmas break do-over!

Anyway, even though I haven’t been a happy patient, Tahdy, all your efforts have made me happier than I would have been without you. Except for the pink containers. But I’m going to let that go. You got it right – from getting me endless boxes of Puffs (seriously – we’ve purchased 19 boxes in the last 7 days) to running out for macaroni and cheese when I had a craving to sleeping on my parents’ couch – not even one of their spare beds – for several nights without complaint to cleaning up all our (copious) Christmas gifts without a moment’s protest – THANK YOU! You take good care of me.