--but being a difficult patient is not restricted to the male gender.

As many of you know, my wife just had a total thyroidectomy for papillary carcinoma--fortunately there seems to be no evidence of it beyond the small node found in the thyroid--but getting her to follow the proper post-op regimen of taking her calcium (to prevent parathyorid shock/dysfunction) and to take her replacement thyroid hormone first thing in the AM upon waking--one is not supposed to eat for at least an hour afterward--has been, uh, challenging. Not to mention that she's now back to running 50 miles a week or so, including a three-hour weekend run, and she's putting off her next scheduled blood work-up to check TSH and thyroglobulin levels . . .

My wife definitely has passive aggressive tendencies--she'll smile and say, "Yes, I did it" and then I'll catch her gulping down synthroid while trying to hide it from me . . .

I'm no great prize as a patient either--I tend to spend a lot of time on the computer figuring out every last possibility for the sniffles--but methinks there is a sexist presumption here . . .