The Curse of the Compassionate Comforter

This is another installment of "Men Behaving Badly"

Have you ever had such intense pain (not including labor), that you seriously thought you were going to die? About the end of the first quarter in last night's Superbowl, I began to feel this odd pain in the right upper quadrant of my abdomen. It shot through to my upper back. It was gnawing, and aching. As the game went on, so did the pain in my stomach. As a nurse, I knew the symptoms where pretty consistent with what seemed to be some issue with my gallbladder. However as a 17 week pregnant woman, I just wanted to whine and cry until someone took notice.

I have these issues since I was 18. I distinctly remember the first "gallbladder attack" I had. I was sitting in typing class when it hit me. It was completely agonizing, and so was the typing class. At any rate, I pretty much know what I should do to prevent these types of occurrences from happening. Eating hot wings, chips and salsa, and taquitos drenched in sour cream is not one of them.

Women are usually seen as comforters, and compassionate individuals. Since I am a nurse, I am obviously compassionate to individuals who are ill, or need help...because I am certainly not in it for the salary. I can remember when I was sick as a child, something about my mothers voice, and her rubbing my head and back always made me feel so much better.

So what is one supposed to do when they are 31 years old, and have probably the worse pain they have ever had in their whole life? While any standard narcotic would do the trick, I unfortunately do not have any spare Vicodin lying around, and I don't have a drug dealer. I need a different plan. Unfortunately, I think my mother would frown upon me dropping by, curling upon her couch in the fetal position, while sticking my thumb in my mouth. But, that is just me. Some of you may do that, and hey..more power to you! I think a big dose of compassion and perhaps a nice comforting back rub would do the trick. But where can you find that these days?

Significant others....hmmmmm....there's a thought. If you are a male reading this then the thought is legit for you. If you are female...I guess you just out of luck. Unless, of course, you have a closet homosexual for a sig-o, or he is a metro-sexual. I guess he could also be that 1% of males who knows what compassion is, and how to show it.

All we really want is for our men to ask us what they can do, sit down next to us, maybe rub our backs a little. I am not talking a full out Swedish massage. I don't know about all of you out there but anytime I want a little back-rub, he wants some BIG reward for doing it, or he is so aggravated that I asked him to do it that he puts no effort into it.

Even if you don't care that our insides feel like they are about to be regurgitated, at least act like it. And, if you are bad actor...get some acting lessons, or just watch a couple episodes of Days of Our Lives and you will be a compassionate comforter in no time at all.