I had a fun experience yesterday. I received my first phone call from the school nurse. Yippee!
About 1:30 yesterday afternoon I get a phone call from a complete stranger that went something like this:
Me: Hello?
Nurse: Hi. Is this Felicia?
Me: Yes. Who is this please?
Nurse: I'm the nurse at the elementary school and I have a young Nathaniel here.
Me: Oh?
(Thinking frantically that he broke an arm. Calming down, knowing he's a hypochondriac, it has to be a false alarm - I don't hear screaming in the background)
Nurse: Yes, he came in after lunch because he has a rash on his leg.
(At this point I'm relieved - he had a rash on his ankle before school. He frequently gets little patches of prickly heat rash and it's no big deal. I'm about to tell her this when ...)
Nurse: It's on his legs but it doesn't itch. When he scratches it it hurts. I took a look and it goes all the way up his legs and onto his trunk. The bumps are red and raised and irregular.
(Is it Ebola? Smallpox? Is my boy going to die? What the heck is going on at this school that contagious diseases just float around, waiting to attack my child?!?)
Nurse: I'm a little concerned ...
(YOU'RE concerned?!?)
Nurse: ... but Nathaniel says he's taking some medicine at home?
Me: Yes, he's taking an antibiotic, but he's been on it for a week now.
Nurse: Oh! (Relief sounds in her voice) That's it then. It's common for kids to break out in a rash like this about 5 to 7 days into an antibiotic. There's nothing you can do and it won't cause him any harm.
We both laugh and share other little closing pleasantries. My child's not going to die. I'm not a bad mom. Bla bla bla.
So I hang up and do the logical thing. I call Chris and say, "Nathaniel's school nurse just called ..."
Until I write again ...
Flea
P.S. For those of you keeping up with Lou the Loud, he nearly lost most favored cat status this morning. And I nearly had to call the school nurse. Mae was running late for the bus and fell down the first several stairs, giving us a good fright. Lou walked in front of her as she was coming round the corner, tripping her in her descent. She's okay, but ready to kill Lou. Nathaniel woke up long enough to give a feeble, "Yay Louie!"
4 comments:
I'm a little concerned..... Doesn't that sound so dire?! I've gotten calls like that before. You might as well clear your day when you hear that line.
Well, I was expecting a visit to the morgue, or at the least the quarantine wing of the hospital, but the nurse assured me it was nothing. So I googled it. Sure enough, it's nothing! If an expert tells me something is so, unless my gut tells me otherwise, I let it go. Scary, huh?
Hi, here via Boomers. I'm not a boomer, but a X'er who's a personal friend of Connie Pombo.
Thus after this discourse, your post brought back some memories, both distant and recent.
When my sixteen-year-old was in elementary school, I used to get calls from the school nurse often. One time she said to me, "Mrs. Skitt, your son is very friendly, but I think sometimes he just uses this as a way to get out of class." I look back on those days and laugh. He's still very friendly, and still goes to the school nurse, although these days he hates to make up the work and tries to stick it out for the day!
Now, my youngest is in Kindergarten and on his very first day he came home with band-aids on both hands. I said, "What happened?" He said, "My blisters popped and I had to go to the nurse." (He had blisters from practicing going across the monkey bars and evidentally when going across the monkey bars on his first day, they popped)
Well, all I have to say is, "Get ready for more phone calls." I know my heart always leaped in my chest, just in case it was a "real" emergency. Often it was a sick belly or the start of a fever or allergies gone wild... you name it.
Have fun with your little guy! They grow quick!
P.S. Can you believe it is the same school nurse for both my boys? She remembered the last name... LOL!
That's hilarious! I'll bet she remembered the name! And I'm thinking my boy's nurse will know ours before the semester's out.
Thanks for sharing insight and a laugh!
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