Whupped!

What is it about being sick that turns me into such a pansy?

Now EVERY SINGLE WOMAN READING THIS has already answered… “It’s simple Raymond… you’re a man!”

Now I am the very first to admit and have said many hundreds of times that I am “a dime a dozen”.  There isn’t anything overly unique about me in the least.  Love sports, good food, my girlfriend, my daughter, farting, video games, good times with good friends… I am your average Joe in virtually every aspect but one.

I should be dead… Twice.

I’ve told my story before in this blog, so I won’t belabor it anymore…but you would think that someone who has been near death on a couple of occasions would be able to suck it up a little and get through those really “terrible” colds and flues.

My dad had a saying for me when he would come to my games and I would be injured slightly somehow… enough to stop play.  I could always hear that voice in the crowd (and even in my head during the games where my dad couldn’t be in attendance) that would say; “Long way from the heart”.  

It was Dad’s way of telling me to persevere.  To get up and fight on through the barrier that was placed before me.  It’s a lesson that I don’t think enough people learn during their lives, but that is another blog topic for another day.

So there I was, lying in bed…head feeling like mucus and snot was about to explode forth out of every orifice of my cranium because of the sheer pressure.  My throat filled with what felt like broken glass… every shard digging into the sides of my esophagus; hacking and wheezing from coughs that would rattle my bones.   And then I heard my dad say in my head… “Long way from the heart”.

To put this into perspective… my girlfriend, a reporter currently embedded with our troops in Afghanistan, in the middle of a war zone where we hear about rocket attacks and IED’s and all sorts of human atrocity felt the need and strong desire to take care of me while I was sick with a COLD.  With more than enough on her own plate to focus on she made sure to contact me when she could and send me the “good vibes” to make me feel better because she knew I was going to be a wreck.

Suffice it to say that EVERY WOMAN READING THIS BLOG would have lived through all of this while getting the kids ready for school, and then preparing to head of to a long work day where they are over worked and under appreciated only to come home afterward and deal with the family all over again.  

On the other hand, maybe it isn’t my gender that is causing the increase in diffuclty handling illness.  Perhaps this is an age issue.  I am NOT OLD in ANY stretch of the imagination.  At 39, I still haven’t reached my prime (at least that is what I am telling myself in the hopes that I have not lived all this time and not fulfilled some romanticized “destiny” that I have for myself… again….another blog topic for another day)

However it is true… when I was younger, I don’t recall being sidelined like this by a mere cold.  Hell or high water I was going to do what needed to be done and there wasn’t a cold, twisted ankle, brain aneurysm that was gonna stop me.  Now a cold comes along and you may as well prepare me for last rights…if I believed in that (another blo…you get the point.)

What I am trying to say is:

A)    Women are tougher than men.  Case closed.

B)     I am not sure where my intestinal fortitude disappeared to, but I am hoping that it comes back to me at some point.  

It might actually come in handy.