Tuesday afternoon I worked on the final line edits for No Surrender, but I decided to leave a small timeline issue for Wednesday, when the house would be quiet and I could concentrate.
I should have known better.
Wednesday I spent feeling various stages of “like crap”, and the day went downhill from there. When I picked Short Kid up from school, he was lethargic and flushed. That would be due to the 103.5 degree fever. Why, you might ask, didn’t they call me and send him home?
Because a staff member, whose job description in the memory book is teacher’s assistant—which really doesn’t sound anything like school nurse, even in any of the funny accents I tried—felt his forehead and told him he was fine. Yes, that conversation was had this morning when I’d cooled off enough to discuss my displeasure without landing myself on the police department’s Crazy-Ass Parent watch list.
Now it’s Thursday and the Short Kid and I are being appropriately dosed (strep throat), so life swings back to final line edits. After I double-check the timeline issue, I’ll make a separate document in which I accept all the changes and make it an ebook, and then I’ll read it again. Between my editing passes and the editor’s editing passes and the final line editor’s editing passes and yet another final editing pass, if there’s a typo in No Surrender, rejoice for it. It deserved to live.
Comment
Put the book down and take a nap. :whip:
And hope you and SK feel better soon. Really, let the meds do their job. Lots of fluids. Lots of rest. Strep is nasty business. :hug:
Comment
What Jaci said.
I also hate it when a child is dismissed like that. At our school, though, the school nurse calls for everything. I mean everything. She’s dramatic about it too and it drives me bonkers. “Your son got hit on the head with a ball in gym.”
“Did he lose consciousness?” I ask.
“No. But maybe he should be checked out.”
“IS there a bump or bruise? Is it gushing blood?”
“No. But the ball hit.his.head. I think he should be checked out.”
“Is he there?”
“Mom, I’m fine,” he says with a chuckle.
I swear she’d call if the kids went there with a hang nail. She’d believe it needed “checked out”.
I hope you and the SK feel better really soon!
Comment
I left IM, threw some lunch at the kids and hit the husband’s recliner. I just woke up.
And our school nurse is actually really good about calling and letting me decide what to do. I can even pop in and see him and then decide whether or not I want to bring him home or send him back to class. A head bump always merits a phone call, though she’ll let me know realistically if she thinks it’s a problem. They also monitor head bumps for the rest of the day and will call back to pass the liability buck if it looks worse than originally thought.
This was a staff member—and NOT his teacher—who made a judgment call without sending him to the school nurse, who is SUPPOSED to make the judgment calls based on her nursing degree and thermometer.
Comment
Can I just say I hate stupid people who think they know everything? Poor SK suffered all day and that damn TA had the nerve to say he was ok by feeling his head? Holy shit! Hope you guys are both feeling better soon!