My mum seems to get really excited and obsessive about people being ill. Everytime I ring her she runs down a list of all the people who she knows to be currently suffering illness. The conversation goes something like :
me: "Hi mum, how are you?"
mum: "oh hi, did you know about Sharon?"
me: "yep"
mum: "no I'll tell you the full story, she went to doctors and ..... (20 minutes later) ... and did I tell you about Roger from down the road? "
and on and on she goes until in the end she's spent an hour talking about people's illnesses and I've not got a word in edgeways.
At the moment, her husband is unwell so this is her new obsession. I called this morning to ask how he was and she went on and on about that for an hour or so - eventually I managed to say "I started my new job yesterday" and she said "oh, how did it go?" - I just started to tell her before she interupted with "do you think they'll take his stitches out tomorrow?" ffs
W eventually got around to discussing my new job again before she squeals "OH!!! The nurse is here!!!! I have to , bye!"
AIBU to find it irritating??
One time I was suffering with bowel impactation and she called to see how I was - I was half way through my one sentance answer when she butted in with "oh I've had terrible stomach ache today you know ... " and then waffled on about herself for the next hour whilst I'm in agony on the other end of the phone!
AIBU?
To get irritated at my mum's excitement over people's illnesses?
CoolPatootieTango · 23/10/2012 11:17
My mother does this 
I call it me, myself and I syndrome. It's very common.
Me, myself and I syndrome..... I love that, describes my Mum to T. Her Medical Drama's usually have to revolver around her. She recently has tried to get my Dad de-diagnosed as Diabetic as she is the only Diabetic in the family 
mardy voice. She probably does a good Marty voice too though. Ahem 
My Mum's the same. I get mixed up with who had an op for what sometimes. She has quite a few friends that share a christian name.
Every time my Mum rings it's to tell me about the "Pomp and Ceremony" of blah-de-blah event that she saw on telly. 
She's only become a millitant royalist since she semi retired and it's DOING MY HEAD IN.
If she says "Pomp and Ceremony" one more time!
DP's Mum is exactly like this. She loves talking about people's illnesses / deaths... All the better if it's a particularly tragic story, then she practically licks her chops with glee.
Nothing gets her quite so excited as her own 'illnesses' though. She visits her GP at least twice a week, and when he invariably checks out the current issue and tells she is fine, she then bitches for days about how useless he is, never listens, etc.
She is also very competitive re health. If someone has a cold, she takes to her bed with the flu for a week. If someone has a headache, she develops a much worse one and decides it must be a brain tumour. When I had a miscarriage, she pretty much said 'oh. Okay'. Then blathered on at me for ages about the hysterectomy she had years ago, how awful she felt, and so on.
It is really fucking annoying, isn't it? I have perfected the smiling, nodding, and inserting the odd 'oh really' and 'how awful' (because of course it always is) whilst reciting poetry or counting backwards from a million in my head .
Oh CoolPatootie, yy re the blaming people for their own illnesses / misfortunes. DP is currently awaiting a diagnosis, potentially epilepsy. Not a shred of understanding or sympathy from his Mum. Just 'well, no wonder with all them gigs you do', 'well, you don't get enough sleep', 'oh, it must be that house you're living in', 'well, if Shadows looked after you better...'. Er, right so.
Sounds like your Mum and my 'MIL' would get on like a house on fire. Well, if either of them could get a word in .
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My gran used to do this. "I've got some awful sad news to tell you. SomePersonYouMetOnceWhenYouWereFour died last week." We all pretended to care but gosh darnnit, it's hard when the person was elderly and/or very sick and you never knew them!
She is now suffering crippling Dementia and is in a nursing home and her only obsession now is who's brought her sweets when they visit and if you are going to take her out anywhere.
God thinking about it, I actually miss her obsessive gossip about who died recently 
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