Not quite Harakiri...

When I met my husband he was attending law school in San Antonio (TX ) and was alone in the city.  His brother who lives about 3 hours away was his emergency contact. Shortly after my honey and I realized our relationship wasn't a casual one I asked him to please give his brother my phone number in case of an emergency. 

I was fearful that if something happened to my honey I would be oblivious of it and more that he would end up in a hospital alone.  As soon as we moved in together I insisted he add me to his "in case of emergency" list.  Thankfully we've been emergency free! 

This weekend my husband attended a convention here in town and ended up with a self inflicted wound.  It was a freak accident and luckily my brother-in-law who is in the medical field was there to tend to my husband.  I stopped by the convention to drop off lunch for the guys (my husband and brother-in-law) and when asked where his brother was my husband answered that he had gone over to the CVS (pharmacy) down the street.  I didn't think twice about it.  The pharmacy being a close "convenience" store he could have easily gone over to buy gum!

As I looked around at the gathering of people recognizing a few faces I realized my husband, whose internal clock rings the loudest for LUNCH, wasn't pouncing on the food I had brought him.  I noticed him awkwardly standing on a corner of the room away from the activities and holding his wrist in his other hand.  Very odd!  I asked if he wasn't hungry since I didn't see him trying to inhale his lunch (like I would expect) but he said he would wait for his brother. 

Some time went by and my brother-in-law wasn't back so I suggested to my husband that he eat his lunch before it got cold. Again he insisted he would wait for his brother. It was then that he mentioned he had cut himself and his brother had gone to the pharmacy to pickup some first aid supplies. I asked what happened, and he briefly filled me in.  I motioned for him to let me take a look at his wound and with hesitation he did.  It didn't look bad.  Having had stitches many times in my life, I didn't think it was a big deal. 

At that moment my brother-in-law arrived with a large bag full of supplies.  He took over and for what to me looked like a one inch scratch he was going overboard with the tending of the wound. My husband got patched up short of a sling for his hand (in my opinion) but I figured my brother-in-law had been thorough!

I left after lunch and it wasn't until I was back at home with a friend who had witnessed the incident and gave me specific details that I understood it had been more serious.  Then my husband arrived back home and told me the entire story of how he had accidentally STABBED himself and had seen about half an inch if not more of a blade disappear in to his wrist that I realized the seriousness of the accident. 

After I showed my sympathy for the accident and his discomfort I did what is logical for me to do.  I threaten him with bodily harm if in the future he again didn't call to tell me about an injury.  I know he isn't a child, but he IS MINE! My husband, my spouse, my companion, my Love, mine, Mine, MINE!  I didn't wait around for true love to come around so late for me to have it short-lived. I know I may sound insane or too possessive, but I value the man that I married and want to be with him in all the important ways a mate should be.

I don't freak out over every injury!  I have a nice collection of stitches acquired thru my childhood that make me very tolerant of most anything requiring a dozen or less sutures, but the playing it down and keeping it from me will get him hurt! 

Sometimes things are not addressed in a relationship until they happen, and I think it best to be crystal clear of what is expected from each other.  I know I can exaggerate and go to extremes to get my point across of the importance of things. but like my honey always says.. "I know you can hurt me but first you have to catch me!"