Written by Judith Blakley
This story is also published on: www.lovelaceway.blogspot.com
Saturday afternoon, I took my very ill 22 year old daughter, her newborn baby and 23 month old toddler to Walmart to get groceries. Bad move.
Liz, my daughter, lost a lot of blood during her delivery and her hemoglobin count is below anemic stage. She is not allowed to do anything - nothing. She can hold and feed the baby, that's it. She has been having nosebleeds, headaches and dizzy spells. When researching online how to deal with her symptoms, I learned that a hemoglobin count under 10 is lifethreatening. I already knew that she could easily and quickly bleed to death if she fell and bruised herself or tore something that was still healing, but now I had more to worry about. The more I learned about her condition, the more worried I became.
Despite my better judgment, I allowed Liz to talk me into letting her get out of the house and go grocery shopping with me. She promised not to do anything but walk with me. Dumb. I was dumb. I agreed.
As soon as we got to Walmart, we got two carts. She pushed the empty cart that only had the newborn in her carrier in it. Oh yeah, she's not even allowed to carry the baby in the carrier. The hospital said it was too heavy for her condition.
I had the cart with the toddler and the gathering purchases. The first stop was the one hour photo lab. My son-in-law could not find their USB cord before he went back to Afghanistan, so she was only getting her disposable camera photos of the baby developed. She had to get some pics up on her MySpace account!
Then we went and filled up the bottom of my cart with diapers and wipes for both little ones. This was when the baby decided she was hungry. We went to the back of the store where the layaway department used to be (Walmarts have gotten rid of their layaway departments) so we could sit on a bench while she fed the baby. By the time the baby was done, the toddler was getting ready to revolt at being stuck in a shopping cart and going nowhere.
We got milk and was halfway down the drinks aisle when Liz just about passed out. I had to help her to the floor so that she did not hurt herself falling. She sat there for about fifteen minutes trying to make the spinning stop. She was thirsty from breastfeeding and so I was looking for a six pack or something of some juice or something I could open one for her and put the rest in the cart. I couldn't find anything right there, so I told her I would go over to the McDonalds at the back of the store to get her a soda. There was no way I could take both children with me to run that errand, and she did not feel aware enough to be left alone with them in the middle of the aisle, so I helped her to her feet and we slowly walked over to the McDonalds together.
I helped her get situated in a chair and took the milk and put it back before getting in line. I went ahead and ordered food for the three of us. It took forever as the employees seemed to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of customers. I begged for a cup and got Liz a soda and then went back for the food.
After we ate, we walked very very slowly through the rest of the store. She was out of everything and insisted we finish shopping.
By the time we were done shopping, she was feeling faint again and I made her sit on a bench at the front of the store while I ran back and got her photos. There was a woman who'd had the same thing happen after her delivery and she was sitting next to my daughter keeping an eye on her. Our cashier was also right there worried to death about her. But my daughter HAD to have those pics for her MySpace.
It was a chore getting everyone in the car and back in the house. It took forever to get all the groceries into her house - there's a courtyard you have to walk through.
The rest of the day my fibromyalgia acted up and by the end of the night, every inch of my body was in pain and could not be touched.
But we made it home safe and now my daughter really gets it that she cannot be left alone and cannot do anything.
