Because I gave Princess ibuprofen for the pain in her throat so she could attend school, she has to wait 2 weeks for her tonsillectomy. Shelby county schools have strict rules about NOT administering medicine (note that page 23 has nothing to do with the list of obstacles that I have had to address in the past 24 hours) and the below is a list of the transactions it took to make sure that Princes can have a pain killer and a throat lozenge should her throat hurt during the school day. Remember that this isn't required, this is just IN CASE her throat hurts.
Phone call 1 with school nurse from elementary school:
- I couldn't downloaded the medical release form so fill it out note with all of the information and send medicine to school with Princess. However, all medicine must be hand delivered by the parent and the forms must be filled out while in the office and can not be faxed in.
- They didn't like the kind of pain killer my doctor prescribed because it might cause drowsiness. School nurse suggested I keep Princess home for a month until she no longer required medication
- They also needed a note from the doctor stating that it was medically necessary for this medicine to be given to Princess while at school
- School nurse additionally needed the Health Director's permission
- School nurse needs Princess to sit in the office the entire time she has the lozenge in her mouth
I quickly realized that in this first phone call, the school nurse IS the obstacle. Let's be real. A full time school nurse who can't administer medication and looks for reasons to send kids home. What is the ROI of that job?
Phone call 2 with health director:
- Needs doctor's permission, could be faxed, but her fax isn't working.
- Says giving her the medicine isn't a problem, as long as I give her my doctor's contact information
- Says I need to pack a soft lunch (which we have been doing for two weeks already) and that sending yogurt will go a long way to help her with the pain.
Phone call 3 with doctor:
- I request the doctor fax over the prescription
Phone call 4 with health director:
- She now requires I call the doctor to give the doctor permission to share Princess's medical information with the health director
Phone call 5 with doctor:
- give friggin permission
Phone call 6 with health director:
- Says doctor only gave permission to administer tylenol.
Phone call 7 with doctor:
- What the friggin hell?
Next day, phone call 8 with health director who is now at the elementary school:
- Wants to know when I will show up at the school to fill out the permission forms
- Wants my doctor to fax the forms to the school now
- Suggests I send a water bottle with Princess so that she can keep her throat moist during the day and hopefully keep it from hurting
In the past two weeks, I have seen an ER doctor, the family physician and an ear, nose and throat specialist and you know what? NONE of these doctors suggested that water and yogurt for lunch was the solution to pain! Where did this woman get her medical degree?
So I go up to the school, fill out two forms (one for tylenol and one for a throat lozenge) with seemingly no problems. But this experience really has me counting my blessings. My children don't have chronic illnesses. I can only image what parents with real issues must face. What hope does a child that requires any kind of medical attention have of getting an education in a system set up like this? They would have absolutely no chance of having a "normal" school day.
And how do these parents stay employed? None of the effort taken on behalf of the school nurse or the "health director" improved the quality of my daughter's experience at school. None of it was done with her best interest in mind. The system is set up to deter parents from sending their children to school. My choices are let my little girl hurt during the day or take my lunch breaks to race to the school, check her out, give her medicine and check her back in. Which, by the way, is ok with the school.
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