A Young Wife’s Tale

Here’s my first ever podcast!

Episode 1 – Christmas with Chronic Illness

Click above to listen.

For me, being a wife to a chronically ill husband is like being a communication device. Maybe not all men have trouble communicating, but David definitely has a hard time verbalizing his pain and suffering. It’s actually one of the most frustrating aspects of having a husband with an invisible chronic illness. I get really angry when David doesn’t tell me he’s hurting. I get so upset when someone at church asks him to help move heavy furniture and he does it instead of saying, “Sorry, I can’t.” It’s like he wants to be the strong, silent type.

Although this could lead to an infection in anyone, for a person like David with Psoriatic Arthritis taking immuno-suppressant drugs, this is a big deal.

A stylist at a national hair cut chain did this to David. And there were two additional cuts on the side of his neck. I had to report this to he state. Yes, I filed a complaint. It is not acceptable for a licensed professional to cut a client that many times.

We put some Neosporin on David’s neck, and it’s healing up nicely. However, if he had gotten an infection, his body would be in a weakened state, and it would be more difficult to fight off than it would be for a normal person. Plus, he would have to stop taking his medication until he was completely well, so he would run the risk of an arthritis flare.

Today is Day 2 of the SITS Girls Back to Blogging event. Thank you to the event sponsors Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath and Florida Builder Appliances. Today’s assignment is to re-upload a post you wish more people had read and explain why it was important to you.

I originally published this on October 23, 2009, and called it, “I Didn’t Kill My Husband”.

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I didn’t kill my husband. Let me just get that out there. David is alive. And so am I. For that we are truly thankful.

Things got pretty ugly last night. David gave himself his third Humira injection. You may recall the first injection occurred at the rheumatologist’s office. The nurse helped David give it to himself. The second one was two weeks ago at home, and it took him about an hour to do it. We were screaming at each other.

This is my first blog post. It was originally published on April 25, 2009.

I went for a physical a few weeks ago. My most dreaded day of the year. The doctor spent the entire time talking to me about David’s arthritis. He was really nice and encouraging. He had great advice, but when I got in the car afterwards, I couldn’t help but think, “Hey! That was my physical! Why were we talking about David?”