When an Adult Child Becomes like a Child Again

My daughter has a brain tumor. It affects her motor skills and has weakened the left side of her body. The brain tumor has also all but robbed her of her memory. She may forget within an hour something she agrees to. She has even forgotten she visited the doctor in the morning by that same afternoon. However, she may remember the visit the next day. She can be childish in her dealings with others at this time. She wants what she wants and she wants it now. And at other times she responds as well as any other 32 year old would to daily tasks, wants and needs.

I took my daughter grocery shopping today. Normally a list is made and followed. I think my son-in-law just needed a brief break as there was no list. "Just help her to buy the staples mom, bread, cereal, pastas, canned good. You know what to get." So off we went. With the weakness on her left side she stumbles and shuffles a lot. I was afraid she'd suffer another fall so she decided to ride in one of the electric carts. This was helpful but also a bit dangerous. Her mind wanders a lot now so I had to pay constant attention to where she was going and if she was heading forward or backward. She has not driven a car in months. Today I am glad. I threatened to make her park it several times trying to get her to understand she had to be more careful. I was ran into several times by choice just to prevent her from hitting something or someone else. Items were slowly picked and places into the cart. Mad dashes were made from one side of the store to the other. I was given many dirty glances by innocent bystanders not understanding I had to speak to this grown woman in this tone, just to get her attention. To focus her eyes on mine so as to see if she understood what I was saying or asking of her. And then momentarily she was just fine for while. "Mom, get the sausages." "Mom, we'll need cheese." "Which is cheaper this one or that one." "Mom, did we get eggs yet?" For about 20 minutes everything was great moving along just fine and then I turned away for a moment; just a few seconds and she was gone. I looked up and down several aisles and could not find her or the cart. Fear swelled in my chest. Walmart is a big store to have to search to find a missing child, I mean adult. And what if she ran into a little child or a display of glass jars. I found the cart near the ladies restroom. Her third trip there in less than an hour. She made it, she says, "I'm ok mom". Are you babygirl, are you ok? Will you ever be ok again? I hope so, oh how I hope so!

The surgery date has been moved up to February 17th. She goes for her pre-op checkup tomorrow, Feb. 12th. Please Pray for Bobbie, and the surgeons. And my son-in-law, bless his soul. He's put up with so much. His birthday is Feb. 28th and he told her all he wants for his birthday is to have his wife back. I pray he gets his birthday wish..........