Care Giver

For the last couple months, the wife and I have been dealing with her medical condition. Diverticulitis flared up and produced an abscess on her colon. A week in the local hospital calmed down the abscess, which was surgically removed in a colon resection three weeks later. This next week, four weeks after the last hospital stay, she will go in again to have an ileostomy reversed. It has been quite an ordeal, as she has been tremendously weakened by all this.

Throughout all of it, with the exception of a couple visiting nurse visits, I have been caring for her as well as working, cleaning, and all the other mundane things necessary to keep up a household. There are moments when I feel a bit sorry for myself, what with having to do all this stuff, but mostly, it reminds me of what she was doing every day while I was at work. If you ever start to feel like you're not in a partnership with your spouse, try doing it all yourself. It is amazing how soon you realize that there is a lot of stuff you do not appreciate that is being done while you are not looking. Take a few minutes and remind your spouse, life-partner, POSSLQ, that you appreciate what he or she does to add to your shared quality of life.