Yesterday I experienced one of the most traumatic, scaring experience in my life. The kind of tragic event that you immediately want to forget, but know you will carry it with you to your death bed.
It happened in public, at the grocery store pharmacy.
I was picking up a prescription (for a noncontagious aliment, I must disclose). The script was called in the day before, so I thought it would be ready and waiting for me when we got there. A quick in-and-out experience was what I had envisioned.
Naturally, it wasn't ready. Apparently, there are a lot of sick people right now and the pharmacist was back-up like a Michigan State bartender during happy hour. I was told I was going to have to wait "just a minute".
As I look around my surroundings, I see people who look like they just stepped off the set of MJ's music video, Thriller. I see people not even able to stand, people clutching their stomachs, folks moaning. Moaning. This might sound like I'm making an exaggeration here for a good story, I wish that was the case. Honestly, I've never seen anything like it.
Since we only have to wait "a minute", and I don't want to come back to this mess, the girls and I decide to wait it out. Bad idea. If I'm not totally freaked out and paranoid to the point of paralysis already, the lady behind me (within arms reach) starts to vomit. into a plastic bag. I seriously feel like I'm in a scene of a bad Will Smith movie where everyone is dying of some unknown illness and the world is ending.
I am so grossed out and freaked out that I quickly move the girls and I straight ahead to the soap isle and crack open the nearest bottle of disinfectant we can find. While we're lathering up, the barfing lady is called to the window and picks up her much needed meds. As she's walking out, she has to pass us to get to the door.
And then it happened.
SHE TOUCHES ME ON THE SHOULDER AND APOLOGIZES FOR GETTING SICK. SHE TOUCHES ME (while the other hand is clutching her barf bag)!
I am obviously pregnant. I obviously had 2 small children with me. Why would anyone who is grossly sick touch another human on purpose? I could go on and on about this situation - how I feel about seriously contagious people going out in public. And did I mention she had a family member/friend accompanying her? SHE SHOULD HAVE WAITED IN THE CAR. OR AT HOME. OR OUT SIDE.
Because of this - I have vowed myself to never go into another pharmacy again. I will only take my business to pharmacies that have a drive-thru.
And I can't get the sound of her very vocal vomiting out of my head, no matter how hard I try. I've been changed for life, it was even more damaging to me than the time I found a hair weave tangled in my cart wheel.
As I walked out out of the store, I made a comment to the girls that everyone should be asked to wear masks when going out in public. Little did we know, that when we got the mail later in the day, Aunt Betsy would deliver a little surprise in the mail.
31 comments:
Fri Oct 16, 02:52:00 PM
I'm cringing for you!! I would have left.. I have vomit phobia - like I won't eat for days if my children, husband or anyone that have "the illness" may have exposed me. (I'm CRAZY & i'm very well aware that I could still get sick, it's a brain malfunction) But for heaven's sake SHE TOUCHED YOU and your pregnant and you have children!! achhhhh.. I may have nightmares tonight and I wasn't even there;( Happy Sanitizing!
Fri Oct 16, 03:51:00 PM
I suppose you ran your shirt through a wash cycle with bleach when you got home? I don't like going to pharmacies or doctor's offices this time of year. Thank goodness most pharmacies do have drive thru nowadays.
Fri Oct 16, 05:11:00 PM
You.have.got.to.be.kidding. That is dispicable. Detestable. Disgusting. Da most gross thing I've ever heard. (But I loved the appropriateness of PK's mask. That couldn't have been planned any better.) Now go soak those kids in some Clorox.
Fri Oct 16, 05:24:00 PM
You don't know me but I read your blog because its funny!
That was truely gross...almost as bad as my son picking up a piece of chewed gum off the Family Fare floor and putting it in his mouth and chewing it! Blaahhh!
Fri Oct 16, 05:37:00 PM
OH MY GOODNESS!! This is why I have been holed up in my house with my newborn afraid to go out in public. I have not been like this with any of my other kids, but I am just freaked out someone will touch him. I can't believe this. I would just go out in a full hazmat suit from now on.
Fri Oct 16, 05:57:00 PM
Ewww.. nice of her to apologize, but she definitely should have kept her hands to herself. Ewwwww!
Fri Oct 16, 06:43:00 PM
drive thrus are awesome!
Fri Oct 16, 08:36:00 PM
I don't get people!
Thanks for the humorous twist at the end though... maybe I won't have nightmares now.
Fri Oct 16, 08:48:00 PM
That is one of the WORST stories I have ever heard!!! Unreal!! So wrong on SO MANY levels!! Did you go home and bathe in Lysol??
Fri Oct 16, 09:55:00 PM
Are you kidding me?! I am impressed that at 35 weeks pregnant you didn't slug her (I apparently have violence issues.) I am dreading having to take my kiddos to the pediatrician for their well-child visits this winter because it shares a waiting room with the general practice clinic . . . adults are AWFUL with their germ spreading!
Sat Oct 17, 12:17:00 AM
I cannot believe she touched you! What a jerk!
Sat Oct 17, 08:49:00 AM
Oh MAH GAH! That's gross. Seriously, what is WRONG with that woman?
This entire post made me laugh, though, and I think the clincher is those animal masks at the end. :)
I have been very OCD about carrying hand sanitizer (or hanitizer as my 4-year-old says) everywhere. I really think you should design a stylish pendant of hand sanitizer that we could all wear around our necks!
Sat Oct 17, 09:31:00 AM
I feel bad for laughing. It was disturbing, of course, but oh my...how do these things happen to you?! I can just picture the look on your face!
Sat Oct 17, 07:36:00 PM
It's sad to think that almost everyone on earth has heard that the flu is spreading like wildfire during a drought, yet there are some people who just don't get it - or don't understand the implications. Especially to the young and pregnant.
I'm knocking on every piece of wood in my house for you and hoping you remain healthy and strong!
Sat Oct 17, 10:16:00 PM
Two words: Wal greens!!
I love their pharmacy on 16th and I always drive thru!! Hope you stay well--Nathan and I were talking the other day about how to get through this winter without too much sickness! Now I know what not to do! :)
Sat Oct 17, 10:17:00 PM
OH.MY.GOOD.LORD.
I have nothing else to say.
Sun Oct 18, 10:46:00 AM
Oh wow, Emily! I can't even imagine!!! Are you all still feeling well? I hope and pray for you, my dear. It's been great reading through your blog that I've missed so dearly. You crack me up. :-)
Sun Oct 18, 12:24:00 PM
That is so disgusting! EEWWW!
I can't stand it when people who are really ill go out in public or send their obviously sick kids to school (playdates, etc). It is one thing if no one else could get her meds, but clearly, she had someone with her and surely they could have found a way to get her meds without her there.
Hope you manage to avoid it.
LOVE the masks too! : )
Sun Oct 18, 12:25:00 PM
and hey if you can let me know where those super cool masks came from, let me know. My girls would LOVE those!
Mon Oct 19, 08:09:00 AM
O.M.G. I'm speechless. And digusted. And considering moving to a deserted island with my family and a few barnyard animals. UGH.
Mon Oct 19, 08:10:00 AM
(The animals would be to produce food, lol.)
Mon Oct 19, 08:15:00 AM
oh no, that is so horrible. Everyone knows not to touch a mom, especially one that is obviously pregnant. eewww. masks are funny. My kids would totally wear them everywhere. Hope you aren't sick.
Mon Oct 19, 08:19:00 AM
Grossest. woman. ever. Sorry you had to go through that! My stomach is churning just thinking about it! Prayers for you and the baby and the girls!
Mon Oct 19, 08:43:00 AM
Due to the nature of my work, I visit about 15 hospitals a week. Nearly all of them have masks right at the entrance for anyone with any type of flu symptoms. Why the heck don't phamacies, where those same sick people go, have the same thing?!
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
Mon Oct 19, 09:00:00 AM
Not being one to freak out over things, I'm having to be the voice of reason here. Sick people have to get their meds. But when you said there was someone else with her? Dude. That's not right. Sit. In. The. Car. And don't touch anyone. EVER.
What is wrong with people?
Mon Oct 19, 05:12:00 PM
I love this! Altho based on the pig mask one may make the assumption that she has the swine flu. But I would be way more concerned about that monkey flu if I were you, I mean I haven't even heard about it on the news...LOL!
That is so sad, I am so sorry you had to go through this. This is why we use the pharmacy at the medical bldg next to the hospital in our town. Its mostly used by staff and the hospital, it does have a drive thru that they let you wait in while they get your script and well they are uber friendly with a no sick people policy. They will ask offenders to leave, I have witnessed it!
Tue Oct 20, 01:37:00 PM
NO! NOOOOO!!! What a crazy person! I can't believe she touched you. I would have died. Well you know what I mean.
Those masks are cute and apparently NEEDED.
Tue Oct 20, 01:55:00 PM
OMG, sorry you had to go through that!
Wed Oct 21, 05:45:00 PM
You should have punched her in the stomach, because there is not a jury in the world who would convict you for that. W...T...F.
Sat Oct 24, 09:45:00 PM
OMG that is SO disgusting! I can't believe how stupid some people are!
Sun Oct 25, 01:59:00 AM
That's horrible. Just horrible.
BUT I'm glad you don't have the H1N1. That is a nasty "bug," for sure.
I'm actually considering hibernating for the next few weeks just to avoid it. ;)
stephanie@metropolitanmama.net
Post a Comment