My Knight on a White Horse

I usually can't really relate when I read statements by wives who say their husbands are their "Knights in Shining Armor."  I mean, really?  Are other peoples' lives like that?  Are they just being dramatic?  My life doesn't often feel like a fairy tale where we are riding off in the sunset.  It's a lot of hard work.  So, things like that don't really resonate with me. 

But, now I have my own story to share and it goes like this:

On the day after Christmas, I had surgery and Brian was in charge of taking care of me for the first few days.  I was a little nervous, because, if you know Brian, you know he is a fun-loving guy and I was a little afraid that he would be too busy making wise cracks to get all the notes straight when the nurse explained the medication schedule in which I had to be given a strong narcotic every three hours.  But, if they got mixed up and I took them in the wrong order, I could stop breathing.

He drove me home from the surgery, and I was in quite a painful state, all hunched over like a little old lady, wearing my support hose to stop blood clots or something.  All the time driving home and all the time walking up to the front door, all I could think about was getting into my nice cozy bed and getting back to my sideways, acid tripping, narcotic induced dreamland.

I couldn't lay flat.  I had to have my upper body at an incline and my legs propped up.  So, Brian went about arranging the pillows.  But, when I laid down that first time, I wasn't comfortable and I was in way too much pain to be adjusting the pillows and getting them just right.  Poor Brian felt helpless and didn't know what to do.  And, I didn't know what to tell him to do.  My brain was in no state to be reasonable so I started to cry, and let me tell you right now, that crying is not a good idea after major surgery so, foggy brain or no, I had to find a way to stop that in its tracks.

Finally, the pillows were acceptable and I drifted off to sleep.

For the next several days, here is what happened:

That crazy, funny husband of mine set alarms in his new iphone 5 (Christmas gift from yours truly) and he gave me every narcotic right on time never missing a beat.  He even woke up in the night to give me my meds and he kept me virtually pain free (and in a colorful dreamland).  And, the best part?  After the first pillow fiasco, he figured out the exact right way to arrange the pillows to make me more comfortable than I could have ever thought possible. 

Truly, I would get out of bed and then back in and try to arrange the pillows myself and I was just a mess.  Then, he would appear out of nowhere and magically make it all just right.  Then, he would tuck the covers up around my chin and I have never felt so like I was married to prince charming in all my life. 

Really.  I even get a little teary now when I try to tell him thank you for doing it.  And, I know that now I sound dramatic and silly like all the other ladies writing about their husbands being their "knights" or their "princes."

But, that is just the way it is.