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Spouses who stay vs. those who dont?

CowTown

New member
I was wondering today about why some people can handle sticking around to be a spouse of a CFer and other significant others leave before the going gets tough. Do you think having past experience with health related issues and the person who stays in the relationship with a CFer go hand in hand?

Those of you who have married a CFer or are in a relationship with someone who has it, maybe you could help me out on these thoughts.



I wonder if the people who stick around either:

1.
At some point in their lives have been exposed to someone else's health issues and don't feel so alarmed by CF because of it. They might see CF as just another illness to deal with, like cancer, heart trouble, MS, etc, and see right past it when it comes to caring and loving that person. Do they have to have had some experience with health-related stuff in the past to feel they can handle this?

2.
Or, they haven't delt with any illnesses or health related stuff in the past but are fine with marrying a CFer because maybe they don't fully grasp the terminal part and keep going without the full acceptance of potential heart ache? Maybe it's about not grasping it until they find they are so inlove and there's no backing out.

3.
Or.....?


I realize a few people on this site have mentioned that their spouse or significant other sees it as wanting to be with that person for as long as there is, whether long or short and it's not about the length of time, it's all about the love. This is also how my husband has phrased it to me, in different words but, I am just curious about what goes through some other people's minds about whether you stay or can you not handle it.

I dated a guy for a couple of weeks a long time ago and was confused by his outlook. He told me straight out that my illness was way too heavy to deal with in a relaitonship and he just wanted to be friends. Friends we remained, but the thing was that he had a newly diagnosed disease that he was just starting to deal with himself and his mother became diagnosed with cancer later that year. He had never dealt with sickness before that point. I wonder if someone like him, would become more comfortable with dating someone with CF, only once he experiences more health related things. Maybe they have to see that the label alone "CF", is more than just a label. Maybe they don't know that there can still be a ton of incredibly good times and only hear "disease" and know it will kill you. What do you think?

My husband on the other hand, is there for me all the way and has been since we first met. He grew up with his father having heart issues, diabetes and they visited him often in the hospital, and then passed away while he was in college. Maybe he was more prepared for me because of his past experiences. Do these go hand in hand?

Any thoughts?


Edited: boy that was long....I edited it down a tiny bit anyways.
 
I think that this question could go for anyone that leaves their spouse. I personally think that it is all about selfishness. Ben, my husband had never dealt with any type of illness like this. I think he knew as much as he could possibly comprehend at the time. Its hard for all of us to wrap our heads around it all until we experience the more traumatic parts of it. I htink that he just loved me and wanted to be with me and will continue to do that. He knows that we will have eternity.

Emilee
 

Emily65Roses

New member
I will speak for Mike, because I know him well, and will say only what I know.

For your number one, he has one cousin with epilepsy, and another with an un-diagnosed (it's been years...) muscle disorder of some kind (she's been tested for EVERYTHING)... His memere (grandma in French) died of breast cancer after fighting it for like... 8 years when he was a kid.

BUT... He's not *that* close to Rob or Jennifer (the cousins), and he didn't know what Memere died of, or that she was even sick, until <i><b>after</i></b> she died. So Mike's not a complete stranger to illness, but I wouldn't say he was up close and personal with it much either.

As for your number two, I know this isn't the case. He's talked to Allie before, I've talked to him in detail many many times. And he doesn't just listen, we talk together. He's not in denial, he doesn't *not* know, we've cried about it together. He's very realistic, in touch with everything, knows what's going on.

So as for the reason, I don't know. Best reason I have, and this is cheesy as sin... is that we have something special enough to survive it. Mike has wanted me since he was 10 years old, so when he finally got me at 17, it was like a dream come true. Heh. (Mind you I'm not an arrogant prickface, this is word for word what Mike has said to me before). How he deals with it... I just don't know. His father (not unsensitive, but very macho, and he can do ANYTHING) has even sat him down before and said to him "I don't know if I could do what you're doing with Emily... both taking such good care of her, and staying with her knowing what's down the road." We took that as a huge compliment from his father to him. And it was. So I don't know... it's just something Mike seems to have in him. <img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0">
 

julie

New member
Kelly, I choose option #3 <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

Really, I haven't dealt with any illneses of myself or someone close to me in my lifetime but I have worked in the medical field since I was 15, my mom is a nurse (although a L&D nurse) and I have never been alarmed much by medical stuff. I feel my reason for staying with Mark after I found out about the CF had nothing to do with that (although now that you have me thinking maybe my own medical field work might have better prepared me???? even though it was just for a year before I met him). It had to do with the fact that I loved him and CF, no CF, cancer, no cancer, brain damage, no brain damage, physical handicap, no physical handicap I would remain by his side regardless because love for me is just love and it's not something I can control by the condition of the person or their health.

Plus, he's the only person aside from my parents and my bestfriend who puts up with my crap day in and day out, 24/7 and still loves me at the end of it all.
 

thelizardqueen

New member
Well, what I can say about Cory, is that his half sister passed away from Cerebral Palsy when he was 15 or 16, and his mother has always suffered with Diabetes, so he's no stranger to illness. He's always helped his mother with her diabetic treatments, so in somewaht, he's used to hospitals, etc. Cory also knows majority of the ins and outs of CF, we've talked about CF in great deal. That being said, I think he likes to think that I'm a part of that small percentage that will live to see 60. He's way too optimistic, which is one of the qualities I love about him, but at the same time I don't know if he's being realistic. I say this in all fairness to him, because he's never seen the "darkside" of CF. I've never had a tube feeding, nor a port, or a PICC. He's seen me in hospital once for a kidney infection, and has only seen my very minor episodes of hemoptysis. He wasn't in the picture when I had my embolization.

And like Emily said - I don't know the specific reason why Cory's still here, and even if I did I wouldn't understand it, but what he and I have is something very special that only a few lucky people get to experience in thier lifetime. I'm not going to question why he stays with me, but rather I'm going to accept it, and love him for it. He deserves that much instead of me always questioning his motives for still being here. Maybe its just the simple fact that he loves me, and I like to think that love conquers all. K - I'm done being all dramatic.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0">
 

Allie

New member
Hm I honestly gave all of these a lot of thought.

1) Well, my brother had asthma growing up, so I knew what a nebulaizer looked like, but I wouldn't say it prepared me for dealing with Ry. It didn't really even occur to me that they would correlate. I never had to help my brother deal with his asthma, I had to help Ry deal with his CF.

2) Absolutely not. Ry made 100% that I was realistic. (None of that "you might get hit by a bus', so be okay with it stuff.) But "Barring an act of God, I will die before you" A honest answer, and he made sure I understood that so much before we married. He was never anything less than honest.

3) I think Ry and I had a love that I can arrogantly say was legendary. I loved him from beginning to end, not just when he was healthy and it was easier, but when he got horribly sick, and I was more than happy to love him and be with him. I think it's just something that is either in someone or isn't. I was capable of loving someone no matter what, and Ry loved me in such a way that I could not imagine leaving him for such a thing as CF. I still love him now. I think, like all marriages, love on both sides is what must you keep you together. What makes you a good couple, doesn't change with sickness, or hurt, love in CF is like a flower growing from concrete, but it does happen, that true love that can breal down anything.

/ramble
 

Emily65Roses

New member
You're not arrogant!!!!!!!
<img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0"><img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0">
 

Ricky

New member
I was married for 13 years 1991 - 2004 my wife left me because she saw my health declining and could't handle it'. I must preface this by saying my x is a Respitory Therapist and has seen many, many many, peole with cf die. Some people are stronger than others. I don't hate her and we still talk on occassion. I miss her and would't trade the good times we had together for anything.
 

miesl

New member
I'm probably a Group 1 person...

My father has lupus, my mom's a nurse. We did hospice care for my grandfather when he died and took care of him long before that. We currently help care for my grandmother, so she can stay at home. Neither one of those people is my grandparent by blood - they "adopted" my father as one of their own when he was a teen because he needed good parents. It's a part of what my family does. We take care of each other, look out for each other - it's what you do for the people you love. Jeremy's CF? Just another thing to take care of - it's not who he is.

Plus, I have the most awesome parents ever. We'd been dating a few months when they said to us "Why does Jeremy still have an apartment when he spends all his time here?" (Obviously, I was living at home). All of us still live together as an extended family almost three years later. When he went into the hospital two years ago - my father was there learning how to operate the PICC line with us. When we found out how much medication we were going to need to store in the fridge - my parents bought us a mini-fridge to store it all his medication in. They worked out how we could operate his vest and neb while camping (battery packs and power inverters)... and bought him a Pari Trek for his birthday (plus fun stuff).
 

Brad

New member
My X ***** left the first time I really got sick, I was in the hospital
for 17 days,

In her case I should have seen it coming, everything
revolved around her before, everything was about HER,,,,,,

This woman when we went christmas shopping and each year
you go 5 or 6 times to cover everybody,but every trip every year
half the stuff we brought home was for HER,,, so as I said
I should have seen it coming,,,,,I am better off without her,
I was on Zantac 300mg 3 times a day for 2 years before she left,
I have NOT had a One since she left,,,,
 
Here is one of the best compliments I have ever recieved. When I was so sick in the hosptial having Cambree I had so many people tell me months later how much they knew my husband loved me. They would talk aobut how amazing he was. Of course I know this already, it is just nice to see that others recognize the speicalness of it all. My husband is a fighter and I know that going through what we went through together that he will stick with me through anything.

Emilee
 

Scarlett81

New member
I think in that case 9 times out of 10 the real issue has nothing to do with CF. It's about love. And other love related qualities like selfishness, care, trust. The plain fact is that if you really love someone you'll deal with them through thick and thin. You may hate the situation, you may cry, yell, kick and scream at cf or whatever the problem is-but you stay and deal b/c it's true love. Maybe saying "i'm leaving b/c I can't handle your cf" is just an excuse to get out of a loveless marriage? I'm not saying I'm sure about that, I'm just putting that out there.

How selfish is it to leave someone b/c you can't handle their disease-when at 50 the healthy spouse could have a stroke and need round the clock care for the rest of their life? Or develop cancer?
 

CowTown

New member
Ricky, I must say that I just don't understand that. I'm sorry to hear. I don't get that at all...13 years and then?
Christian, that was nicely put about the love part.

I can see now that it comes down to many things as an individual. Some people are stronger, some love more then others, and some just can't deal for selfish reasons, whether they have experience with something or not. As we all know, people come in many different shapes, sizes and qualities. I would think that having experience with something health related would help to some degree, but I guess it would still come down to the strength and quality of the person.
 

catboogie

New member
kelly,

great question!

my two cents: boyfriends in the past have generally not been where i needed them to be in terms of my CF. all of them either had not had experiences with health issues, or had just been in denial about things. my boyfriend now is wonderful and he did lose his mother to cancer 10 years ago. he says that after going through that, nothing scares him. that the unknown is far scarier than the known, or when you can relate to the known.

my brother married a woman with chrone's disease. although she stays pretty healthy, it is another disease with a lot of unknowns down the road. my brother has said that me having CF (and he has always been a HUGE support) helped him feel less freaked out about his wife.

laura
 

JustDucky

New member
Hmm...good question. My ex left me before I was even diagnosed with CF. I was however very ill with chronic respiratory failure due to my neuro disease and on O2 and a BiPAP. Like Brad, I should have seen it coming. He was never interested in how my doctor's visits went, he never asked questions despite me trying to educate him on what the tests meant. It was like talking to a brick wall with holes in it..whatever I said, passed right through it. He was useless around the house when I became weaker, the laundry piled up, dishes were piling up as well...the kicker was that he only did his own. Had I been stronger, I would have kicked his a** out long ago. What was the final insult was when I needed to be trached and ultimately vented, he did not even come near me when I went off to surgery. I was so scared, but as you all know, I have a wonderful family who was supportive. Unfortunately, my kids had to witness all of this. I finally said or wrote (was unable to speak) that if he couldnt handle this then just leave and get out of my life. He admitted that he couldn't deal with all of this. I was very angry at him. He just could not come to terms with all of this, he did not deal with any sick people in his life and he was a selfish soul. My family said I dodged the bullet when he left, I believe that they were right. I now am happy, I have my kids and a great family and community in my corner and am truly grateful for all of what I have now. Things happen for a reason, I believe that this was going to happen even if I were healthy at some point in time, all of this just shoved it forward at warp speed.
It is wonderful when I hear of those who stick with their soulmates despite how sick they are. Hugs to all you beautiful people! Jenn <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
 
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