Always something

I took my 28 week glucose test last week. I was so paranoid about failing it and having to take the three hour test that I didn't eat anything remotely sugary for a full 24 hours beforehand. And then I prayed that my breakfast of peanut butter toast wasn't enough to put me over the edge. All that worry paid off. I came in at a safe 105 (anything under 130 is considered good).

However, I did register as anemic. It wasn't a huge surprise; I was anemic with my first pregnancy, but only enough to receive an admonition about my diet. It must be worse this time around because now I have to take iron pills. Even after a week I don't quite understand how these things work. The directions recommend I take them on an empty stomach, with a "vitamin C drink," but not within two hours (before or after) of eating wheat, eggs, or milk. What else is there to eat? Everything has one of those ingredients! So instead of snacking my way through the evening (hey, my stomach is the size of a walnut these days so I get hungry often, but can't hold much) and then going off to bed with a glass of chocolate milk and my prenatal vitamin (the perfect way to unwind after a long day), I am starving myself and heading off to bed with a glass of orange juice, an iron supplement and prenatal vitamin, a growling stomach, and a headache. It doesn't make for restful sleep or pleasant mornings...as I found out on Friday.

Friday I really needed to go grocery shopping. The best time is first thing in the morning after I drop my husband off at work, because it is not too hot and there is no one else in the grocery store. I'm quite lazy (i.e. I love sleep more than looking good) so I pretty much roll out of bed and leave the house in my PJs. Anyhow, as we were making our way down the grocery aisles I started to feel a little queasy. I scolded my self for not eating something but continued with the shopping; after all, who wants to leave what they've started and have to come back and start all over again later? Well then, as we were paying for the groceries my vision started to go a little fuzzy. I silently begged the cashier to hurry it up a little so I could find a display to sit down on for awhile. She didn't oblige, being too interested in her conversation with the cashier in the next lane, but eventually we were done and on our way.

As soon as I started pushing the cart, I knew I was going to pass out. There is a bank at the front of the store with a couple of chairs for customers, so I aimed for those and prayed we would make it before I was out cold. The world started to spin and my vision narrowed until finally everything went black. I thought we were close to the chairs so I started waving my hand around, like a blind woman, trying to find contact. "Where are the chairs Addison?" I asked my son. I never could find one and was somehow mildly aware that I probably looked like a fool, so I gave up and put my head down between my legs instead.

I'm not really sure how long I stayed that way, but thankfully my hand on the cart never came loose so I didn't suffer a terrific public fall. When my vision came back, a few foggy inches at a time, I found the chair, plopped down, and reached for the first thing I could find to eat in our cart (Quaker Oatmeal Squares - the best cold cereal ever!) My son was distressed to say the least and kept asking why we weren't going home, but I found it impossible to answer for a few minutes. When speech returned, I told him mommy was sick and so we sat snacking for a good fifteen minutes. I didn't want to risk driving home and killing my kids if I happened to black out again.

Thankfully, we made it safely home, despite my woosiness, and once the kids and cold groceries were inside, I did what any sensible, emotionally instable, pregnant woman would do...sat on the kitchen floor and balled my eyes out. I swear, it's always something. The question of the day remains, was it the anemia or the blood sugar that caused the black out, and how in the world am I supposed to balance it all?