Chronic

Those chills I had five days ago? They morphed in the mother of all head colds. My sinuses and ears have been stuffed to the point of bursting for the better part of four days.

Of course, because of this awful cough and the way my voice sounds all garbled with mucous and whatnot, Tom complained of an ear ache on Monday evening.

I googled home remedies for ear pain. We put oil in his ear and he's walked around for three days with a cotton ball stuffed in his right ear.

Two nights ago, I came home and saw (without searching, just so you know) that he'd done a search on 'chronic adult ear infections.'

Chronic? Oh holy hell!

Chronic? Really? I've known this man for almost ten years. I think he's complained of ear pain TWICE and one of those times was four days ago.

Chronic?

I think perhaps he doesn't understand the meaning of the word.

In the eight years since Alyssa was born, I've had at least one ear infection a year. At one point last year, my doctor threatened me with tubes. I was 39 years old! Tubes in my ears, at almost forty!

But whatever. There are no pain olympics in marriage. I realize that since I married a man, I must live with the fact that he suffers like a man. Which means his pain is more intense than that of anyone else in the vicinity has ever suffered. Right?

This is how it with with my step-dad and brothers and it's how things work with my husband.

So my mom and I laugh and feel all self-righteous as we give our head colds just five more days to go away on their own before we head to the doctor.

Seriously, this cold has until next Wednesday before I hit it with some hardcore antibiotics.

Of course, while he suffers greatly, Tom stoutly refuses to see a doctor when he's 'ill.' Oh, his constitution is such that he'll defeat this illness all on his own, thank you very much.

Such a GUY!