Thursday, September 15, 2011

You'd Be Surprised....

At all the stares you get when you have to go into the store with your cancer baby all masked up. Thanks to my brain continuing to intermittently abandon me, I left Anderson's formula on the counter, thus had none to feed him with once we arrived at clinic this morning. So I had to pack them all up and take a trip to the local grocery store.  Before the cancer, this would've been no big deal. But now, it requires a few supplies: a mask that fits Alaina, sanitizer wipes to clean the grocery cart with, and some hand sanitizer for every time Alaina tries to touch something in the store and succeeds. She's neutropenic right now, which means very VERY susceptible to getting sick.

So as we stroll at a brisk pace through the store to find the formula, all eyes turn to my sweet girl. She has a knitted headband on with a bunch of pretty bows she herself picked out (pictured here) but it's open in the back, not to mention the mask covering everything but her eyes. I can only imagine what people think. Before all of this, I didn't know anything about cancer so if I saw a child like this probably wouldn't know what to think. Maybe that they had something contagious and was wearing the mask to protect everyone else. I was so ignorant to the disease but boy, I sure feel I could intern as a nurse's assistant if I wanted to (they probably don't do that, but you know what I mean....).

The thing is, Alaina is still a 2 1/2-year-old little girl, albeit she talks amazingly well. She's back to her old self, which means it looks like someones beat her because of all the bruising due to her low platelets and high activity (like throwing herself on the ground so we'll tickle her...crazy child!).

Sometimes, when I do go out in public, I feel like wearing a sign that says, "Yes, my child is sick, but she's still a normal little girl, so STOP STARING." Unless, of course, you just plan on being polite and helpful, like the lady in front of us at the check out who let us go first, and the cashier, who quickly scanned a membership card to the store so I could get a hefty discount on the formula. Thank you, nice ladies who I don't know. You made my morning much much easier and more bearable!

3 comments:

  1. I would hope that if I came across the same scene, I would be one of those helpful people. As heartbreaking as stories like this are, it encourages me to show kindness to the strangers I meet.

    I feature a new charity each month over on my blog. This month is the Gary Sinise foundation, but I've been looking for a great charity that works with cancer patients. Do you have one that you recommend? I desperately want to help children and adults who need the comfort that these charities provide.

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  2. We'll be participating in 2 the end of this year: Cookies for Kids' Cancer http://www.cookiesforkidscancer.org/ and Light the Night Walk http://www.lightthenight.org/ I believe either one also has the ability to donate online. You're an awesome person! Thanks for stopping by :)

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  3. Thanks for talking about this. If I saw a mother with a mask on her kid and wiping down everything - I'd assume she was a germ-aphobe. I'm glad some people were helpful and nice! <3

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