Alex walked into school at 8:45 am with the rest of the kids off the bus, healthy and happy. When I picked him up at 9:45 am he looked like he had been sick for days. What changed? Did Alex go from 98.6 to 101.1 in 60 minutes? No, Alex was told by his Kindergarten teacher that he needed to go see the nurse because of his cough. It makes sense that when you work in a school system that your “kid sense” is heightened and you have probably seen this before. Alex did as his teacher told him to and went and saw the nurse. It is early March and several students have been diagnosed with Strep Throat, so the nurse already had a predilection to the symptoms. I got the call and drove to school to pick him up.
When I arrived at school I asked what he had, I felt terrible, I was responsible for putting the kids on the bus, I sent one into battle injured? I assumed projectiles, but the office told me no, Alex was only complaining of a sore throat. I asked about a fever and the nurse said “no” he did not have a fever. I thought, “huh”, this is weird, Alex likes school, likes being with his friends, he has never come home from school before, so why now? Alex was supposed to go home with another one of his friends today from school. After a brief play date they were both going to go to another classmates birthday party. So going home sick blows this whole day, how could this happen? In 5 year old world this is the “Titanic” and I didn’t see the ice berg.
After we got back in the car I began my investigation, now to a 5 year old investigation no matter how soft and delicate you may be is always received as an interrogation, and 99.9% of all answers are “I don’t know”. “Alex when did you start to feel bad?”
End of part 1…
Be Good,
- Chris