Empathy?

I've had my share of painful injuries/post surgical situations. It wasn't long ago I went a week or two with a fractured spine. I'm not saying I didn't complain, but I'm pretty tough. I have to be. I have to push through pain to get things done fairly often. Broken bones are pretty rare, but since becoming a parent pain and fatigue are pretty constant. Most recently, I've been having horrible shoulder blade area pain on my right side. Sometimes it hurts so much it feels like chest pain. It's been a problem for almost a month. I'm a bit doctored out at this point so I've done nothing. I've been dragging my feet about my bone density results as well, but there's neither here nor there.

Yesterday, Mike hurt his elbow. He's not sure how, but he said it felt like a sprain. He's usually pretty injury resistant. I was stunned when he announced he'd taken the afternoon off and looking pathetic went to bed. I wasn't surprised when he seemed back to normal this morning. His turn around is usually pretty quick. It was an hour or two of normal Mike before looked pained and frustrated again.

"Let me guess, you felt fine when you woke up so you did too much and now it's worse than ever?" Yup. Rookie mistake. So, I dare any adult to not use their elbow for a day or two. It's not easy. I still maintain upper body injuries are better than lower because you can still get yourself to the bathroom, but it's not fun either way.

All through the experience I kept saying "please remember what this was like." I bet at any given point today I was in twice as much pain, but I kept going. He sighed heavily every time my comments led in that direction, but I hope some of it sunk in. I suppose every woman at some point wants to shake their partner and say "See! This is what it's like. Look, at all I go through and still manage to accomplish this things." Today was my day for that.

He'll be back to his old self tomorrow and taking me completely for granted by the weekend. I'm sure. In the meantime I need to take better care of myself.