My husband spent the entire last weekend in bed, convinced he was suffering through what could only be a re-emergence of the Black Death. In his misery, he was sure that that the illness that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages was making a come-back and he was Patient Zero.
I'll admit it. I'm a bad person. I spent a lot of time laughing at the poor guy's predicament. Of course I was sympathetic! When he was able to keep fluids and food down again I brought him Gatorade and chicken soup. I went out for crackers and sourdough bread. I made sure he had a buffet of pills to choose from.
But whenever my husband gets struck down with one of his bouts of "just kill me now!" illness, I do find the irony giggle inducing. He spends so much time in nasty situations with his motto being "Suck it up!" that being knocked down by a stomach bug seems so... anti-climactic. And after talking to other mil-spouse friends it seems that he is not the only one this happens to.
Air Force Guy just returned from 6 months of intense training with a very high fail rate. There was a lot of pressure, not a lot of sleep, and quite a bit of mental fiddling going on. Needless to say, getting sick there was not an option. Getting sick could get you kicked out of the training because of lost time.
Air Force Guy did not get sick.
Until he came home.
This also happened both times he deployed and at several other training courses. AFG will not get sick until he is home and I have some chores saved up for him.
Today I am putting up the last of the shelves in my basement, because AFG was well enough (after being so sick this weekend he was requesting the music for his funeral) to go to work this morning.
I could be resentful that the brunt of home care is falling on me again (and I kind of was briefly), but AFG's weekend illness also made me laugh. Which I suppose makes me a bad person. But it was kind of funny to see the man that I've watched shout orders, practice Krav Maga, disassemble weapons, walk around in body armor, and eat the most horrifying military concoctions without batting an eyelash - to watch him in bed with some virus, dramatically groaning about the Plague and the end of the world... Well, it was just funny.
