First Week is Finished

One (partial) week under our belts. We've all survived the first four and a half days of school. Whew.

It didn't go without incident. First of all, I get a phone message that the school will not give my son his medication. The reason for this? He's supposed to take a 1/2 pill in the morning, and a 1/2 pill with lunch. The prescription bottle says to take a half pill twice a day. We give him the first half in the morning when he gets up. They're supposed to give him the other half in school at lunch. But since the bottle doesn't state a *specific time of day, they won't give it to him without a signed note from the doctor, and from me.

Now, with a co-worker out on an emergency medical leave, I've been working overtime on a daily basis. When she went on leave, my boss informed me that she was authorized to give me up to 32 hours of overtime a week. So you can imagine how little time I have to run errands, like run to the doctor's office. Let alone CALL the doctor's office. I work in customer service, and I'm in a phone queue. I'm can't make personal phonecalls. And with all this overtime, I'm only taking half hour lunches (which, if I'm lucky, gives me enough time to drive somewhere, get a sandwich, and snarf it down). Geez, when am I supposed to juggle in doctor visits and picking up notes?

And don't ya think you coulda told me you needed the form at registration? Why wait until he's in school, and not tell us until he's sent home unmedicated?

Fortunately, my doctor was pretty flexible, and I faxed him the form to fill out and fax to the school. But with the phone tag, closed office, and all that went with it, it took about three days to get the note to the school.

Hey, no skin off our nose. We could give him the other half when he got home. But I suspect the lack of meds might have had an impact at school, since they agreed to take my verbal permission over the phone, rather than wait yet another day for the form. (Now why couldn't they do that on day one? Or were they just getting desperate, LOL?)

Okay, that was a bit annoying or frustrating, but what the heck. First week of school is a bit chaotic for everybody. No harm done.

Yesterday had me on pins and needles though. I got another call from the school nurse. Nathan got hurt, and had a cut on his shoulder. She wanted to warn me, before he came home with a bandaid. That was thoughtful of her.

Now Nathan with an injury can be a bit unpredictable. If there's blood, he can get very freaked out. If there's pain, he may seen strangely unaffected by it, or he may overreact. Never anywhere inbetween. I've seen him stoically try to walk off a broken toe. And I've seen him go ballistic over a minor scratch. I haven't quite got it all figured out what makes him go over the edge, though I do know that any blood is probably going to do it.

My first question to the nurse was, "Did he throw a fit?" In my mind, that's a meltdown.

The nurse responded yes, that he was pretty upset, and that "he had been somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing, and he fell into a cabinet," but that they put an ice pack on his shoulder, and he's okay now. He had just brought back the ice pack to her, and he was in a good mood. (All is well.)

Okay, I guess I should have clarified things with her, but it's hard for me to be on the phone at all, so I suppose I was not getting the story as straight as I should. Plus the mommy overprotectiveness kicking up a notch.

Keep in mind that last year, when I was told "So then Nathan was taken to the office..." That meant he was physically restrained, removed, secluded, and held down in a chair for a half hour or more by several adults. Talk about understatements...

I was under the impression from the brief discussion with the nurse that Nathan was probably escalating (he was somewhere he shouldn't be), tried to crawl under or behind something (doing something he shouldn't be doing), and got hurt in the process. After all, that has happened before. He's crawled under or behind stuff during escalation, and ended up being restrained and removed. I got a similar description then.

When I got home, I asked dh what happened. He didn't know. Nathan didn't seem to think anything had gone wrong, except he tripped and hurt his shoulder. Huh? No nuclear meltdown?

Not according to Nathan. He *was somewhere where he wasn't supposed to be. He keeps going near the big fan in the room because he's hot and wants to cool down. But he tripped on the fan, and fell, and that's when he hurt his shoulder. Yeah, he got upset, but it's not like he had a melt. (Or at least that's how Nathan sees it.)

I'm not sure which version is true. I know he's not lying. That's his perception of it, accurate or not.

On the other hand, the nurse is brand new. She doesn't know what a meltdown really looks like, or that when I ask if he threw a "fit," I mean he REALLY threw a fit, and perhaps a book, or a chair. Maybe she thought his crying over a painful cut in his shoulder was "a fit." (If that's the case, that poor woman's going to be in for a world of shock when the real thing hits.)

Or maybe I just assumed the worst, because of past history. Maybe that's all the nurse meant. He threw a little fit because he got hurt. Just like any other kid would have. No big deal.

Oh! Okay. I guess I sat on pins and needles for no reason. That's good news. I'd rather find out I was being silly, than have the worst really happen. I don't believe the nurse was deliberately vague or anything. She's really very nice. I had just read between the lines, (because I used to have to) and there probably wasn't anything really between those lines. And I guess I'm like a new student, learning how the school staff works and what to expect. I shouldn't take for granted that what the new nurse tells means the same thing as what the previous nurse would have intended. After all, this one's never seen a melt.

Lesson learned: Don't assume. Lesson two: Next time, ask more specific questions. (Lesson three: Hey, if you're gonna be paranoid all afternoon, wondering what happened, maybe you should just get your butt down there and find out for yourself!)

I don't know if I really want to know what happened with the injury. If there was a meltdown, they didn't seem to think it was bad enough to send him home, suspend him, or anything like that. And if there wasn't a meltdown, well now, that's just the version I'd like to believe is true.

Maybe it's just time for a little faith, huh? Wouldn't it just be wonderful, if when the school says he had a fit, they mean he reacted just like any other kid his age? Nothing scary or unmanageable? No restraint needed? Nothing violent, just emotional? That would be nice!

So anyway, the week went relatively smoothly, I think. Better than last year's first week, by a long shot.

And the kicker? He brought home a little certificate that said "Congratulations! You scored 100% on your spelling test!"

I love notes home that say nice things!!

What was that new mantra again? Oh yeah!

It will be better this year. It will be better this year. It will be better...