Well, according to Ananova, it’s true – men suffer more from colds and the flu than women do. They are more likely to stay in bed, stay home from work, and they spend more on medication. They moan more. According to the Massachusetts Medical Society, men get sicker and die earlier than women.
Can you see my one upraised brow and the skeptical twist of my mouth? I’m the very image of “Uh-huh.”
Yet women get sick more. We have more non-life-threatening illnesses than men do. We’re more likely to go see the doctor and take daily vitamins. Doctors say that “Women get sicker, men die quicker.”
Obviously, the poorer you are, the more likely you are to get sick, because of problems with food, health care and housing. Unmarried people also get sick more and die younger. That’s not just true for men – even married women live longer than unmarried women.
A man who is at home sick is as lovable and friendly as a bear with a sore paw. Right now I have a 3 month old baby and a 33 year old baby at home sick. I’m not sure which one is harder to deal with. I went to the pharmacy and explained that I had two males sick at home.
For my infant, the pharmacist offered a camphor block which I’m to dissolve in boiling water – filling the air with nose-unclogging smell, apparently. Tylenol only if he gets a fever. Vicks Baby Rub is safe for babies as young as three months, so I’m using that to try and make him feel better. Saline drops to moisturize his nose. Mostly I’m keeping him at the breast and nursing him whenever he wants it (as usual), which is all the time. $15 spent.
However, when I mentioned to the nice pharmacist that his father was also sick, she gave me a much more sypathetic look and started pulling out stuff. We have Vicks vapor rub for his chest, multivitamins to give him some energy, Eucalyptus cough drops for his sore throat, Benadryl All-in-one to take care of … well, everything else. (It says it helps fevers AND chills). She said that it was the best cold medicine for a sick man. Total bill – $30
For the record, I got the same cold last week. I put on a sweater and used up a box of tissues.
