My dear hubby of 8 years is several years older than me and had prostate surgery 6 weeks ago, and is experiencing some new discomfort while healing. A little while ago he said "Now I can understand how it feels when your body gets older and isn't working right!" Me... Ehlers Danlos and many weirdnesses that go with or beside that... chronic 24/7 heavy headache that I woke with on 11/11/2006, 24/7 dizziness and neck pain with that, brain fog that makes me leery of driving, respiratory problems (chronic rhinitis and chronic cough since a factory job my 20s --I'm 60--that has slowly worsened to hundreds of coughs per day and sometimes near vomiting and severely limits my social life), digestive motility problems and weight loss (5'4" and 97 lbs), nightly restless leg syndrome, 24/7 sciatic pain, joint pain and weakness, delayed sleep phase syndrome, GERD severely affecting my voice, esophageal spasms, dysautonomia problems and can't stand for long, an auto immune disorder that's now making holes in my hair, ear damage that causes buzzing and made it painful to play my piano, long Covid, a heavy blanket of chronic fatigue for years--and no solutions and few answers from anyone plus a couple of downright mean doctors. He knows all this. We'd talked earlier today and I told him I might try applying for disability benefits. He voiced support.
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So... all I did to respond to his comment was show a brief... ironic smile. Him: "What? I'm trying to express support, that I understand!"
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I tried to explain a bit (um, I have somethings else going on for many years); got frustrated acknowledgement but not real understanding, then I said sorry for my reaction to his attempt at sympathy. He WAS trying. But...
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I dunno. What should I have done?
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