I have another sinus infection. TB and I both had colds about 3 weeks ago. Mine never cleared up, but I?d heard from someone ? maybe it was my mother-in-law ? that there was a virus going ?round that took weeks to clear up. I kept waiting for this darn virus to go away. I had no intention of wimping out to a cold.
Today, though, I admitted I was beaten and went to see the nurse practitioner who not only wrote out a prescription she also cleaned my ears out. Now I can hear myself hacking. Heh.
When she found out I?d had this thing 3 weeks, she looked at me and said, ?Most of the time you should get checked after 10 days to two weeks. You don?t have to suffer with symptoms like this for three weeks.?
Yes, I do.
I was a sickly kid. I was always getting strep throats and missing time from school. When I was about 8 or 9, my doctor had enough and recommended tonsillectomy. This is just an aside ? in those days, tonsillectomies were surgery du jour. Nearly every single kid had to have one whether their tonsils were unhealthy or not. So at the same time I was scheduled, my brother was too. Poor kid. :P
The tonsillectomy took care of most of the strep problems but didn?t help much in keeping germs away from me. I got scarlet fever. I had no idea what was up. I just knew I was hot and sick and my hands and feet were red and peeling. It took me to adulthood to learn that scarlet fever is like advanced strep or something.
Anyway, my mom kept the shades down in my room. My brother was banned altogether and I was totally bored. My father would bring home little things to amuse me: comic books, coloring books, cheap little dolls. He wouldn?t stay and read to me, though, and my mom said it was because he?d never had ?it?. I thought I must have some horrible disease and everyone was afraid to come near me.
I missed a lot of school. I don?t remember how many days it was. I just remember it seemed like I?d been in that dark room forever. One day, there was a knock at the door and I told my mother. Now, she?d been pretty nice to me up to that point. About twenty minutes later, the banshee from hell ran into my room and started screaming at me. I was scared almost to death.
What had happened was the truant officer came for a visit. I?d been absent so many days without word (I guess) that the school decided they had to know what was up. I think once the officer found out I had scarlet fever, all was forgiven. My mother didn?t know that.
She screamed that this was all my fault, she was going to go to jail for being a lousy mother, I would be expelled from school and why did I have to keep getting sick all the time?
I was scared that truant officer would come back and take her away. I wondered if I always 'faked' being sick. Maybe! I was just about hysterical when my dad came home. The next day, my grandmother called the school and found out that my absence was excused. Nothing else would happen to my mom.
Whew! Got off that time, I thought. So I didn?t want to be sick ever again. Except for a miserable year when I was in 7th grade, I never complained about feeling sick. The nurse would call a neighbor to go next door and tell my mother I was in school with a fever and she?d have to come pick me up. Another time I had these coughing spasms and my teacher asked me why my mother would send me to school with whooping cough. Well, I didn?t have that and I suppose the cough was scared right out of me.
This is why I really understand what TB is feeling with his shoulder. He was sort of relieved when the new MRI showed another tear in his rotator cuff because it was ?proof? he was not faking his pain. Now I don?t think TB?s mom turned into Monster Mother when he was sick as a kid. But I do know that coworkers and bosses can be mean. I think that?s what he was worried about, that the workman?s comp people and the boss and all these other yo-yos would think he was faking it and trying to get a free ride.
I had a similar issue with my repetitive motion injuries. I was an excellent sign language interpreter. I worked my butt off to make sure I communicated the entire message to my deaf clients. In the stone age of interpreting, we were expected to do the entire assignment ? it didn?t matter how long it went or how difficult it was.
Picture having your arms in the air at chest level and moving them continuously for up to six hours at a time. When I was younger, I could do it. It got harder and harder as I got older. The soft tissue injuries began in the mid 1980?s and just got worse and worse. I had to go out on workman?s compensation. I needed a modified schedule ? which I didn?t get.
The other interpreters thought I was shirking. I could see it in everyone?s eyes. The attitude was like, oh, come on, how hard is it to do sign language? It?s not like you?re lifting anything! Once they got hurt, of course they understood. But by then it was too late to do me any good.
And so I can relate to how TB feels.
More, I think it stinks. The first surgery went well but he was in a great deal of pain, couldn?t sleep and couldn?t rest for the first few weeks. Gradually he began to get better and it was all looking pretty good when he tore his rotator cuff again at physical therapy. Now he?s back to square one. Next week, I?ll be back at the same hospital waiting and worrying until the surgery is over.
I tried to look for some positives in this mess. One is that TB is out of the shop for the rest of the year. There?s still no work in the office. Another is that we have gotten to spend a lot of time together. When he worked, he really gave it his all and he?d be exhausted when he got home. So now he?s more rested. What else? Well, I guess I?ll keep thinking!