Whew.

I recently committed myself to being a school nurse at least a little bit longer, and then: the 2014-2015 school year has been continuing to happen. This has been the craziest, most stressful year I've ever had, by far. I have answered work emails from home more often than ever, I have screened nearly 60 students for IEPs in 1/4 of the school year (compared to a typical 100-120 for an entire year), and I just can't seem to please teachers or parents. The first aid aspect of my job used to have slow days; now it seems there is a steady stream all day long of pink eye, sore throats, and vomiting, no matter what school site I am in.  August is always a rough month as an employee in the education system, but that seems to be continuing still and it's almost November.

Some highlights off the top of my head:

1. A gnat flying around in a girl's eye. We flushed it out but I don't think I'd ever seen a live bug in someone's eye. 

2. I missed a broken foot, and if there's one thing that makes you feel crappy as a school nurse, it's letting a child walk out the door of your office with a serious injury. In my defense, the student said he was okay and didn't want to call home - and he actually walked out. This was a Friday, Monday I was called into the principal's office and put on speakerphone with the dad, having to answer to him as to why I let his child walk out of my office with a broken foot. Thankfully, the principal (who has a reputation for not doing this for her nurses) defended me, calmed dad down, and all was okay. But an UGH kind of morning that was, for sure. 

3. Spitfire's blood sugars are out of control: her meter cannot even read them, so over 500, on at least 2-3 days per week. 

4. I have been training an LVN to help cover my schools and diabetics, which is incredibly time consuming and after she made what I believe to be a huge mistake, I'm not sure it's at all been worth my time. (This is an in-progress situation, so I will just leave it at that.) If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself...except that that's impossible when your workload is greater than what one human can accomplish and stay sane. 

5. Screenings and more screenings. We need to screen Kindergarten, 2nd, 5th, and 8th grade students, and now that I have three elementary schools and a middle school, that is a LOT of students in my case. I have done a good portion of these, including the 5th grade screenings at one of my school sites that I have been at since I started this job. I met the 5th graders when they were 1st graders, and I recognized more than just a handful of them. It's a good feeling when you see them light up with happiness because they know you remember them.

6. Today I was called in to stand as a witness while a teacher took photographs of a student to provide evidence of physical abuse for a CPS report she was preparing. He was bruised and clearly beaten, a special education student clutching a Clifford book tightly. My bleeding heart nearly bled out. 

7. I screened a girl with Down's Syndrome that I had met once briefly before, several weeks ago. She burst in my door and shouted my name, and the fact that she remembered it just completely made my day, week, and perhaps I will just hold onto that moment for the year. 

I will try to return to regular posting now; this place is a good outlet for me that I've been forgetting about in the whirlwind of things.