Supermarket stress

I had a message this week from a fellow-strokie who told me that last week's blog made her laugh out loud. In a good way, obviously. 

Well, it's certainly my intention to cheer people up with what I write, but that's the first time in nearly a year that I've had a reader say that. I'm not quite sure what she'll make of this week's effort. 

I've mentioned previously about the mood-swings which can afflict stroke-survivors; and I've often commented on how we don't cope well with stress. In my own case, if I get too stressed, I get thunderous headaches and a feeling that the top of my head is going to explode. 

Come with me, then, to Monday morning this week and my local branch of a well-known German discount supermarket. For reasons I won't trouble you with, we weren't able to do the weekly shop on Saturday or Sunday so I ventured out on my own to start the week (No, don't suggest online shopping......)

I was there by 8.30am because busy places trouble me (another effect of strokie-dom) and was doing pretty well until I got to within five yards of the till area - at which point I realised I'd come out without any money or any other means of paying. We all do it, of course - I once had to wait on a petrol-station forecourt while Mrs W ran home to get some cash to pay for £40 of unleaded - but strokies worry more than others about such things. 

Happily, because Warrillow Towers is only over the road and most of the staff know me, I was able to  park the trolley somewhere safe inside the store, 'sprint' home (OK, I don't sprint...) collect my debit card and pay for the goods. 

At which point, I thought my stress was over. Until I got to the car, loaded the bags in the boot, got in the driver's seat, switched on the engine, put the car into reverse and moved two inches backwards. At which point I heard a loud banging noise behind me. 

Now having just gone through a difficult and expensive insurance claim after a disagreement with a bollard in a hospital car park, noises like that worry me. So I looked round and saw an elderly gentleman banging fiercely on the boot of my car. I recognised him from earlier; I'd seen him in the store getting into arguments with other customers and demanding that the staff get out of the way of his wife, who was using two walking sticks. I'd describe him as one of those people who thinks his wife is the only disabled person on the planet and that the world revolves around her. 

I wound down the window and, trying to keep my cool, asked him to stop banging and pointed out that it wasn't terribly safe to walk two inches behind a reversing car if you have trouble walking. He replied rather fiercely, wondering again if I knew that his wife was on sticks and couldn't walk too quickly. At which point, I'm afraid I lost it. 

I shouted that I'd seen him being argumentative in the store, that I was also disabled, that I had a Blue Badge and was entitled to it and that if he continued like that, he was asking for trouble. I'm afraid I might have sworn under my breath. He certainly swore under his. 

Now I wasn't going to have a physical argument with two elderly disabled people in a supermarket car park, so I floored the accelerator and left the scene. But the incident troubled me all day. I'd done nothing wrong; yet had I over-reacted? I had one of those thunderous headaches all morning and couldn't concentrate on some college work. I was so tired that I fell asleep for an hour in the afternoon. 

It wasn't a nice incident and it's worried me all week. I shall certainly avoid him in future. And it shows how fragile a strokie's emotions can be. Previously, I'd have shrugged it off. Now, I'm finding that difficult. 

Comments, anyone?