Going Home Sick
This is a picture of the Webmaster, myself, and Ane from a couple Fridays ago. We were going to a wedding. Best Babysitter made some time in her schedule (thank you again!!) to watch the boys for us.
However, by the time we got to the reception, Ane was beginning to complain that she had a headache. I do carry kids’ Tylenol in my purse, but she did end up with a feverish cold over that weekend, and even ended up missing that next Monday at school. Missing school distressed her terribly, but I called her teacher on the classroom’s direct line and Ane talked to her, which made her feel much better.
Fast-forward to last Friday. Tad was going to stay at school all day, which distressed him because his normal Friday schedule is to have me pick him up right after lunch and drive him to ABA therapy. However, his therapist was on a planned vacation, and he knew that his schedule was off.
I got a call from the school nurse, saying, “Tad is here, and he’s not acting like himself. He says his brain hurts.”
I had her put him on the line, and I asked him, “What’s going on, buddy?”
“Mama, I hurt my brain.”
He ended up staying at school, because lethargic with no fever does not equal getting sent home. He was plenty perky all weekend after a single dose of Tylenol to stop his brain from hurting, though it did seem like he was coming down with the same cold that Ane had had.
Yesterday morning, Tad said to me as he stared at his cereal, “Mama, I feel sick.”
He had no fever and was eyeing his Angry Birds toys as he spoke. “You can stay home, but there will be no Angry Birds or TV,” I warned him.
“I’ll go to school,” he replied.
45 minutes after school started, I get yet another call from the school nurse. “Tad is here and there is green snot coming from his nose, and you need to take him home.”
The green snot was a new one on me. Apparently, that WILL get you sent home. So I packed Rerun up and drove to Tad’s school.
When the nurse brought Tad out of her office and down the hall to where I was waiting in the main office, he began running toward me in excitement. “Mama! You’re back! It’s time to go swimming!”
I glared at the nurse. She raised her right hand as if taking an oath. “I swear that he was lethargic and lying down in my office…”
His nose was dry. “Where is the green snot?” I asked. She had no answer.
Tad, who knows that when I pick him up on Mondays, he has his swimming lesson, thought there had been a time warp or something and now he got to go swimming. When I told him that his swimming lesson (which I could not cancel because you have to call before 8 am to cancel) wasn’t for another 4 hours, he burst into tears.
I was ready to scream. I let the nurse know that I thought he was playing them all, right before she told me that he would have to stay home tomorrow, too, because apparently that’s one of those rules when you get sent home sick. So I took the boys to Grandma’s house, where she watched them both while I did my usual volunteering in Ane’s class, and then picked Tad up and drove him back to school for his swimming lesson and then went on to speech therapy.
Now, for the record, he does have a cold. But I have not yet seen any of this mythical green snot. My guess is that he sneezed and something green came out, and combined with his track record on Friday, it got him sent home.
So, now I will have a not-that-sick kid at home with me and his brother today, fighting over toys and bickering with each other. Joy of joys.
There will still not be any Angry Birds – game, toys, or YouTube videos – allowed today. Mama is playing hardball, and this is no vacation.
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