Contagion

Rob was walking into the kitchen the other night to get me fresh water & stubbed his little toe against the exercise bike.

It seems like whenever I get sick, he has to be sick, too. I had knee surgery, so since my surgery, he has developed carpal tunnel, he burned himself while helping me in the kitchen and has now broken his little toe.

I hate his upbringing - he was encouraged to act this way all through childhood by his mom - whenever someone was sick in the house & receiving all the attention, his mom would get sicker. Of course, she would continue caring for her sick child or mate, but everything she did for them included constant reminders of how bad off she was, how sick she was, and how strong she was to be taking care of a sick kid/husband with a sore throat or a tiny cold while she had just been mauled within inches of her life by rabid wolves. The longer I know her & know of her behavior & see how much worse it's getting, it truly seems like there is something honestly wrong with her - narcisstic personality disorder, something. That's really what marriage is about - trying to undo the damage your partner's parents did so you can be married to a whole, independent human being. In fact, if you remove one 'r' from 'partner', you get 'parent'. Maybe that 'r' is for 'rebuilding'.

Rob's trying to put on this brave facade as he hobbles around - his foot does look bad, it's all bruised & when he first did it it was swollen beyond belief, but of course he won't go get it x-rayed and he won't put ice on it or tape it to his other toes, in other words he'd rather suffer not-so-silently than help himself. I feel bad that he injured himself, but the martyr act just pisses me off.