Manic Monday

We were off for two weeks, although I can hardly say flying across the country with an almost nine month old just itching to crawl was a restful break. I was thrown back into things Monday, beginning with an 8:30 a.m. 504 meeting. In nearly five years, I have never been to a 504 meeting that has started on time, so I didn't sweat running a few minutes late...only to find that, indeed, this would be the one that started promptly at 8:30. Oops. 

The bell system wasn't working at school, but at some point classes started and minutes later, one of the PE teachers was walking a bloodied student into my office. He'd run into a wall, broken his glasses, and had a cut on his eyebrow that dripped blood all over his face, shirt, and shorts. I cleaned him up and we called his mom, who apparently seemed to disregard the seriousness of it, to find someone to pick him up. The student got dizzy, and I called mom back to reiterate that he needed to get picked up immediately. Thankfully, his grandfather arrived before I felt like I needed to call 911, but his grandfather laughed off the injury. I told him head injuries can be serious, handed over a head injury information sheet, and sent them on their way. I found out the next day the student did have a concussion. 

Soon after this, a teacher popped into my office, telling me a student was present that had had mono over the break. Despite what people like to think, mono is not the most contagious thing ever, but before I knew it the teacher was telling me about his trip to England coming up in February and how he couldn't afford to get mono. "Me neither," I said, thinking to myself, "I'm not planning on making out with the student so I don't think it'll be a problem for me." Still, I played the politician's role, listened to his concerns, and called the student in. I talked with the student, told her she was welcome to stay, and told the secretaries about my decision so that when the teacher complained about it they'd have a leg up on it. I can only imagine the teacher's reaction when I sent her back to class. 

At lunch, a severely asthmatic student came into my office coughing, and his inhaler did little to alleviate his symptoms. He's a frequent flyer, always with a bark-like, painful sounding asthmatic cough, and he called his unsympathetic mom, who came to get him at her convenience an hour later, so he could go home and do his breathing treatment. She berated him in front of the entire office for calling her, saying, "We need to get this under control, you can't keep calling me." I nodded in agreement thinking she was talking about his asthma, and then I heard her continue on to say that he just needed to suck it up and stay at school. Um...your kid can hardly breathe, lady. Please take him. Thankfully she did take him this time, but I'm not looking forward to the next time I'm stranding in the office with him. 

I had grand plans to start working on an assignment for my credential program, but needless to say, I didn't get a chance to do that on Monday. 

Lucky me

I received notice from the public health department that a student had a lab confirmed case of pertussis the day before winter break starts. When we return from break, hopefully there won't be any new cases, or...everyone will be out with pertussis.  

It's winter break!! Barring another round of pneumonia or some other gross illness (not completely unlikely as I get ready to board a traveling germ factory next week, also known as a plane), I will be back next semester with more regular posting. 

The games kids enjoy

My 6th grade redhead diabetic is a bashful little guy, but I have him talking far more now than he did back in August. He is on an insulin pump, and his mom packs his lunch. He enters his blood sugar into his pump, the amount of carbohydrates in his packed lunch, and it pops out a bolus amount. I started estimating how much the bolus would be, and he clearly enjoyed it, hiding his pump for me while I tried to come up with an accurate insulin dose. Finally, yesterday, after a month or so of doing this on a daily basis, I guessed the bolus amount spot on. Mr. Redhead was so excited about this! I was too, thinking we could stop the game, but no...Today, he told me that I had to guess every day and once I got enough right in a row, then it wouldn't be fun for him anymore and we could stop. 

Whatever makes you happy, kiddo...

Setting up shop

At one of my new school sites, there's a confiscated Razor scooter sitting parked against the wall. Months ago, a student came in to see me and asked whose it was. "Mine," I replied. "I live here." She looked at me with awe and explained that the school has everything I need: a bed (the cot) in my office, the teacher's lounge has a microwave where I make my dinner, and I never shower. She must have gone back and told all of her friends that the new nurse lives at the office and rides a scooter, because now it seems every time a younger student comes in my office, he or she asks, "Is that scooter really yours?" 

Cheaters

I feel really smug about the fact that I caught someone cheating on their CPR test this week...Don't think you can pull a fast one on me! I teach Heartsaver CPR courses to staff on occasion, and was teaching a particularly difficult student this week. I thought we had a language barrier, but she sure did a lot (a lot) of talking for someone with a language barrier. She wasn't getting things, so when I went to grade her test, the first red flag I had was that she got several right answers. Then I continued on, she missed a couple, and then she missed numbers 5-15...She got the right pattern on the multiple choice answer sheet, but all off by one, and I recognized the pattern. I handed it off to the veteran instructor, told her I thought she cheated, and the lady admitted it. Needless to say, she did not get a CPR card. It's a little scary to think that people cheat on CPR tests. The point of the class isn't to pass the test (especially in this case, the lady was not taking it for a job requirement). It's to learn CPR.

It's December already.

I was going to write that I'm not really sure how this happened, but that's not the case. I know how it happened: I spent most of November getting sick, being sick, and then recovering from being sick. I was told, among other things, that I looked like "death warmed over" on the days that I did make it into work, which wasn't many. Anyway, I only have some sore ribs leftover now and it's back to the grind! At least for three more weeks until winter break. 

On the school front, the LVN that had been assisting me was reassigned, which means I am again on my own for an unrealistically challenging assignment. I can't be in four places at once, managing 5 diabetics takes up a large portion of my day, and my other schools suffer. C'est la vie, I suppose, as I'm not in charge of my assignment and can only do the best I can. Supposedly they are in the process of hiring another LVN so I can get the one that I poured the sweat into training back. 

On the other school front, I will be starting my credential program next year to become a full-fledged school nurse. When I received the welcome letter full of weekends I'd need to be on campus for and a list of textbooks I'd need to purchase, I wondered if I'd really gone off the deep end signing up to get credentialed in a specialty that is probably going extinct. Then I remembered that it will allow me to continue to do what I am doing right now, which is work with kids while being home at a fairly reasonable hour every day to spend time with my own. 

On the home front, with the exception of my daughter spiking her first ever fever last night, things are awesome. I could write a whole blog on motherhood, and join the ranks of mommy bloggers worldwide, but I'll try to restrain myself for now and keep this short. My daughter turns 8 months old Sunday, 2/3 of the way to 1 year. What? I don't know how that happened. 

Kids these days...

They can call 911 without you asking anyone to do so. I was just getting ready to pack up at my middle school and go teach a CPR class for the evening when the secretary told me that someone had collapsed in the girl's bathroom. Envisioning an unconscious student with a head injury, I said if there was a true collapse, we needed to call 911, but I knew the student I would be looking for and had my doubts. Sure enough, I found her leaning against the breezeway outside of her classroom, feigning illness. She was really sick, she said, from drinking expired milk at the cafeteria. 

Her pulse was steady, and I even got her to forget her acting job with some chatter, and she sat in the wheelchair smiling as I rolled her back to the office. I radioed to the secretary that all was well as soon, and explained to the principal, with only a little bit of eye rolling, that the student felt sick from drinking expired milk. (It even gave her a limp, imagine that!) 

So, imagine our surprise when the police showed up minutes later. Apparently someone - a student - called 911 for us. Lovely. I told the police all was well and wished I had taken a snapshot of their faces as I explained this was all over "expired milk." (I know our cafeteria's aren't great, but I assure you, they throw out expired milk.)

The teacher that had reported that the student collapsed had obviously not taken a step outside her doorway to see the student standing in the breezeway, either.