Question: Tell me Nick, why do husbands make terrible patients when they are sick? Why do they resist the care they need to become well? Why do they drive their wives crazy when they are not doing what they are suppose to be doing when they have to become healthy? Why, why, why? You are a guy. Please, let us know why.

Nick: Ha! I originally thought this e-mail came from my wife… but sadly there are more women suffering from this than just my wife. Here’s the best that I got, at least from my experience.

Pain isn’t the problem. Last year I played an entire game of soccer with a broken foot. I literally broke it in a collision within the first five minutes of the game.

It hurt.

I limped a bit.

I thought it was just a bruise or something I could just “walk off.”

So I tied my shoe a little tighter and played on. The next day I figured I’d get it checked out. And it was broken.

Pulled muscles… same thing. Play through.

But if I’m sick it’s another story.

I’m useless.

Last year around this time I got the flu. It was the first year I didn’t get the flu shot in a decade. You know how people with mental issues sometimes think they don’t need their medication anymore because their medicine makes them feel fine? That’s how I was with the flu shot. Never got the flu, so didn’t need the shot… Yeah… I know… cause and effect. Got it now…

Finally, my wife convinced me to go to the local hospital to get checked out. The doctor stuck the longest metal Q-tip I had ever seen up my nose so far it felt like it was poking out the back of my neck. Apparently that’s either a flu test or something my wife brought with her to punish me for being such a wimp.

Either way, it “confirmed” it was the flu. So she recommended some of that “you have to ask the pharmacist because kids turn it into crack” medicine and told me to stay in bed for the rest of the week. (Yes, I thought (seriously), permission to stay in bed like a wimp!). I don’t like to take medicine, but I was desperate. So I did.

Long story short (too late?), the crack cleared me up within a couple of hours. It was magical…

My wife, on the other hand, is tough. Like Rambo sewing his arm together tough. Way tougher than me.

Why? Here’s my theory, at least when it comes to me and my wife:

My wife is way more used to dealing with pain on the inside. She had two kids. She has a way more complicated “system” then me. She has suffered from sinus infections her whole life, like almost daily in the winter. So it's either get up and punch through it or she'd be in bed all the time.

Perhaps more importantly, she is more nurturing than me by nature. She takes care of other people all day… every day… She doesn't have 8-12 hours sitting at a desk. So she feels more responsible to get up and take care of others and the house.

I feel responsible to earn an income, be a leader and take care of the things where my natural talents are. I’m used to controlling physical pain from things that hurt externally. Foot hurts? “Tie your shoe tighter and play on, wimp!” was my mentality. But inside pain I don’t understand. I need energy. I need strength. And when an illness takes away my “strength,” I revert to childhood. I want to be taken care of.

At least that's what I suspect is going on in my house… Next time I'm sick I'll update this!  I also will be conscious to not be such a wimp…. Either way, let's hope it's not for a while… 

Men, are you this way?  Women, is your boyfriend or husband a wimp?

Help this reader out! Why?

🙂