Blog from Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Thankful for Josh's school nurse

I'm sitting here this morning feeling so glad that Josh's school nurse is back with him today. She is there most days but she was sick with fever yesterday. And the nurse who would have taken her place was on vacation, so there was nobody else to be with Josh yesterday - but me. So I got to spend the day back in elementary school - yeah!

I found that alot has changed since I was in grade school, but a lot is still the same. They still begin the day by saying the pledges - but now there is a moment of silence so that kids or teachers can pray or meditate or whatever. And Josh leaves his regular class for a big portion of the day to go be in a small group for specialized attention in reading and math. He seems to do very well in there in the small group setting.

For "specials" Josh had art. I don't remember going to another classroom with another teacher for art when I was that age, but I guess it works better this way, because all that glue and glitter and all get to stay in just one room rather than be all over everywhere in the school.

Lunch was great - we had enchiladas. Well, I did. The other choice of entre was hotdog - that's what Josh chose. The food was quite tasty, and I am glad because I didn't have a chance to pack anything for lunch before heading to the school. Technology seems to have helped in the cafeteria, too. Now, a child punches in his/her id number and it brings up their name and even a picture of them on a screen so the lunch lady can see that it is the right child's account and see how much money they still have available.

After lunch was recess. That has mostly stayed the same, except that the school doors have special locks with buttons and magnet looking keys that the teachers have to get back in with. One student was a bit too interested in picking the lock to get back in. Other students asked and received the teacher's magnetic key thing to get in and this student would tag along inside just to return to "pick" the lock some more. I hope he doesn't damage the locks so nobody can get inside! :)

Josh's oxygen sats got too low upon coming back inside from recess. He was down to 88 percent! The doctor wants to make sure he never gets below 94, and if he does, he is to go on the ventilator. I told Josh he needed to take some big breaths and fan himself - he was pretty sweatty. His sats came up and hovered around 94, so I didn't make him get on the vent. I have noticed that his heart rate tends to go up from 110 to around 140 and his sats get low nearly every day just after recess. I'm not sure what it means or if we should eliminate recess for him. I'd hate to do that because he so enjoys playing football (mostly tossing it around) with the other boys outside.

It was a long day - or it felt like it was. I came home tired, and I can imagine Josh did, too. But we had more to do and didn't get a good chance to rest until it was time for bed. And we watched the Spurs last night. Josh watched until the game went into overtime. Then, I had to force him to turn off the tv and go to sleep. It was a good thing, too, because the game didn't wrap up until midnight! But the good news is they won!!!

Josh's nurse said she was still tired today after sleeping alot yesterday, but she was not running any fever, so she came to be with Josh again today. I'm glad because I really need to rest and catch up on stuff around the house today.