My Husbands Sickness and the Unknown

Where to start? That’s the question I’ve asked myself when thinking of where I want this blog to go, how do I start it, what topic and/or situation do I talk about first? I think the first topic should be a little, okay maybe a lot (I like to talk) more backstory.

Rewind to 2023. It’s early January and the flu is going around. My hubs, Brandon, starts to get sick. At first, I thought it was just the flu: fevers, sweats, fatigue, sore throat, congestion, loss of appetite, shortness of breath. So I go to the store and load up on Campbell’s Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup (his fave), throat drops, flu medicine, and a bunch of Kleenex. When I say a bunch, I mean at least 5 boxes - Brandon goes through Kleenex like no one’s business. I also got some supplements, like echinacea, elderberry, vitamin C, vitamin D3.

This lasted for about a week.

Brandon started feeling better, feeling more like himself. Praise God! If any of you readers have a husband, you know how sometimes they can be a little extra needy when they don’t feel good. I love him and I like taking care of him when he’s sick but after a while sometimes we’re both ready for him to be back to normal.

Then all the symptoms came back about 2 weeks later.

This seemed to go on.…

and on….

Sick for 7 to 10 days, better for 14-21 days. Brandon thought he just kept getting a different strain of the flu or something. So he wouldn’t go to the doctor.

Finally I convinced him to go to the doctor just to make sure nothing else was going on - because he also had a swollen lymph node on his collar bone. This was our first trip to the doctor.

Our primary care doctor thought that maybe whatever Brandon was suffering from got caught or stuck in that lymph node. An antibiotic was prescribed and the lymph node returned to normal size - pretty quickly. Praise God! We thought we were on the up and up.

What could go wrong?

The day or two after Brandon stopped taking the antibiotics, the lymph node returned - only BIGGER!

At some point during all of this the bottom half of his legs started to itch….constantly. My first thought was that it was dryness with it being winter and him being a guy who hates lotion. He disagreed and didn’t think they were dry, but was willing to try lotion. Every day, at least once a day he would put lotion on his legs. But it wasn’t helping. So we tried anti-itch cream. That didn’t help. It was getting bad enough that he was making his legs bleed from scratching so much.

After trying everything I thought could help with the itchiness (even trying an allergy med) failed, I convinced him to go to the doctor again.

I looked at him and lovingly told him “If you’re not going to do anything about it (i.e. go to the doctor), you aren’t allowed to complain about it.” iykyk

Time passed, and he finally went to the doctor about the itching (trip #2). I think the doctor gave him a steroid and then a prescription grade anti-itch cream.

That didn’t help. Again, all his symptoms went away for another couple weeks.

Then they came back.

It seemed like this was going to be a never ending cycle. It was wearing on us both.

One of the worst symptoms: temperature swing. They were so bad that he called me at work asking to pick him up a heated blanket from the store on my way home. He would go from being cuddled under a heated blanket, with pants and a sweatshirt on under his robe with a blanket on top of all of that, to stripping down to his boxers and a t-shirt. This happened so often. My heart was breaking seeing him go through this.

There wasn’t anything I could do and I felt terrible. Have you ever had a situation where your spouse or loved one was going through something and you wanted to do anything to make them feel better. But you couldn’t? It’s the worst feeling ever.

Besides supporting Brandon with food, cuddles, blankets…the only other thing I could do was pray for him.

Thankfully, when we bought our current house there was a perfect space for a War Closet (more on that to come in a future post, so stay tuned!).

Every day I would start my morning in my War Closet. Looking at the bible verses on the wall. My various prayer request sticky notes. Blocking out the rest of the world - most of the time. My brain tends to squirrel off while praying, thinking about my day ahead, items to add to the grocery list, looking at my messy Cricut cutouts and how unlevel they are….who can relate?

I wish I could remember the specific verses I prayed over Brandon, and myself; but unfortunately I can’t find my notebook from that time…If God reminds me what those were, I’ll let you know.

Praying for God to heal my hubs, to give him the strength, to give him rest; to give me the strength to take care of him and give me patience. Cuz I love him to death, and he is my person, but sometimes - let’s be real: guys don’t handle sickness so well.

Little did I know what was to come.

We had a trip to Gatlinburg in April 2023 planned. A little weekend getaway for us. No dogs. Some good, quality time to reconnect and reset; which hadn’t really happened since 2019. I kept thinking we were going to have to cancel it with Brandon having what seemed like cyclical fevers and symptoms coming and going every couple weeks.

Thankfully, he started feeling better a week before we were supposed to go. Praise God! I was so ecstatic to be able to go on this trip. It was much needed. I thanked God relentlessly for allowing Brandon to be well enough to go on this trip.

This was the first time we had been to Gatlinburg. It was so beautiful, and we stayed in an Airbnb on the side of a mountain. It had one of the most gorgeous views I have ever seen (although, nothing will beat the sunrise on a Caribbean beach imo). Brandon felt great the entire time. We watched March Madness while he drank some green beer from a local brewery, went hiking, visited the outlet mall and just enjoyed each other's company.

I thought we were in the clear. I thought we had made it through whatever sickness plagued my hubs for months. But boy was I wrong.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4

In Christ, Taylor