Medical Miracles

I just got over the Cold of the Decade. I survived only because of My Wife.

I had been up in Orono for most of the week at Literacy Coach training, and began to feel sick on Thursday. I returned home Thursday night with symptoms intensifying. Headache, chills, feverish. The usual junk. I dragged myself through school on Friday, knowing that I only had to make it until 3PM. We had no major plans for February vacation, which was fortunate.

I'd planned a post-Valentines (and "sorry we don't have better vacation plans") 1-night get-away to the Inn at Long Lake in Naples for Saturday evening. My Wife graciously expressed excitement about this adventure, although it involved only a 10-minute drive and my health was deteriorating by the moment. We picked up cold medicine on the way.

We did have a delightful evening, dinner, and breakfast at the Inn. My Wife pretended not to notice as I blew my nose every five minutes. Very romantic.

And then we returned home for the most unexciting vacation in history. My Wife, for the next eight days, fully devoted herself to two tasks: nursing me and completing a huge data project (her second job). I would occasionally move from the coach to put a mug in the dishwasher, only to collapse again in an exhausted malaise. My Wife made my every meal, kept the tea flowing, and absorbed my every complaint. At night, I moved into the spare bed, so my coughing and sweating wouldn't keep us both up all night.

By the second weekend, she had logged over 60 hours of data-entry time. We canceled our trip to watch the University of Maine hockey team and, instead, spent over five hours in the Bridgton Hospital Emergency Room trying to find out if I needed antibiotics. I'm not sure if I did, but they didn't give them to me. They did give me a nasal spray that caused my eyes to crust over and I woke up blind at 3AM. I gave up on the nasal spray.

My Wife loves vacations. And, with the snow-bound winter we've had, she desperately needed some sort of change of scenery and a little bit of fun during her week away from school. She didn't get it. Instead she got a helpless, sniveling complainer, who needed 24-hour attention and care. And a major work project that had to get done.

Did she protest? Did she walk out? Did she drink herself into a stupor?

No.

She did was she always does: she took care of us both.

Thanks.