I can get him to get a flu shot at CVS or Walgreens, which are both offering them around here.

Just make sure he doesn't let them give it to him in the tendon, instead of the muscle!!

Skipping 30 new thread posts to echo sj's wisdom:

smonster, I have found that trying to interpret the thought process behind gifts only leads to driving yourself crazy.

I made a huge fuss over how bad my most significant other was at gift giving. I felt misunderstood and 'messaged' into a bad place by everything he gave me.

Looking back, I'm not sure what I was on about, except that I had an expectation of a certain amount of rejection and disappointment in my intimate relationships.

It turned out that what I was 'seeing' was not what I was seeing. I actually use everything he gave me, except for one expensive necklace that I just don't like. I think he actually thought he was doing a good thing, but missed the mark.

The truth is, there was no secret code in his gifts and, if I could have seen past my own insecurities, I could have been the person I fancy myself to be and been more appreciative...or at least less judgy.

Disappointment is so often not even remotely about the thing in front of you.

Whoa, I'm all disoriented by thread changes now.

I'm remembering my stint in the hospital with septicemia in my leg. I very much resent that my enforced four-day vacation was wasted on drugged sleep and being barely able to focus on daytime TV.

Man. We should form a club. I vote Daniel as Secretary of Technology.

Andi, hospital food and feeding practices are abysmal. I only remember one thing I ate during my 3 days. I do remember the result of that eating and that I may not have eaten anything else.

Do take care of yourself and know that, once you get him home (yay for getting better leg), you can offset some of the ick of his stay.

a weaponized silver fleur de lis stopper for wine! It's pretty, functional and can hurt people

Now ... if you could only set it on fire ....

It'd be the best birthday gift ever!

I am dismayed I forgot a San Diego trip until it was too late to get my flu shot first. I'll get it when I get home though. I get sore and tired for a couple of days so waiting means better family relations.

Andi,

I don't know who puts together the hospital meals, but it is frightening. Your knowledge of anatomy is far better than mine (white blood cells...protein...WTF), but it makes sense. I think they typically don't provide protein because protein can make ill people feel worse.

The truth is, there was no secret code in his gifts and, if I could have seen past my own insecurities, I could have been the person I fancy myself to be and been more appreciative...or at least less judgy.

Man, I could have written this myself. Sometimes when your partner doesn't make coffee on a Sunday morning, it's NOT because he wants to punish you for forgetting to set the coffee up the night before; it's just because he got up before you, sat down to check e-mail, and got sucked into the interwebs.

Someday I will learn that.

I know we struggled with hospital meals for my mom. They never understood that while she had kidney failure, she was not hypertensive. There were other issues, such as getting certain medications with her meals and others a certain interval after a meal. I know the hospital personal are typically overworked and aren't trying to slight the patients, but it sure helps to have a non-drugged out advocate by your side.

We seem to have acquired our first item of refrigerator art. It's a bold, abstract work in the finger-painting medium. Vivid use of colour (blue). It is attached to the fridge via four echidna-shaped magnets.

The food at Huntington when I was in the hospital last year wasn't bad. I didn't get to eat too much of it since I was either on a feeding tube or limited to clear liquids for most of the month in the hospital. I did finally get upgraded to all liquids near the end of my stay. I couldn't eat yogurt for months and I still sometimes have a hard time facing jello or pudding.