To make up for the fact that I was MIA for almost 10 days I have decided to recap my week for all of you who are so damned bored you can't wait to hear about the P.O.S. week I had.
I really shouldn't feel sorry for myself. So many people have it worse than I do and I think about them and pray for them often, I promise. I just had a miserable week and I am going to tell someone about it. It's my blog and I will cry if I want to.
Remember last weekend, y'all were jealous because
I snuck away on an impromptu overnighter?
Well, Karma is a bitch my friends because the paybacks for that bit of fun were ten fold.
Monday I got to work and fired up the trusty Dell and "poof!" Gone. Kaput. I tried to reinstall the OS, reinstall the drivers, (cleaned the LCD with an alcohol wipe)...nuthin! As I am trying to trouble shoot through the tears, the phone is ringing off the hook with parents calling in about their absent kids. Normally, I would not be on the front lines at the office all day, but my friend
(who works the front desk) was home all week with Swine Flu so I was pulling double duty.
(Snippy, glad you're feeling better, BTW!)
I can't believe how hard the flu hit the valley this week! In our little school of 500 we had a rash of 10-15% of our kids out with either H1N1 or strep. I am over attendance reporting for the State and I was scrambling, trying to keep up with the call-ins, the kids coming to the front office looking like death warmed over....taking their temperatures and sending them home. I don't understand why parents would send their kids knowing they have a fever? I know sometimes we have no idea that the kid doesn't feel good when they leave in the morning, but I had several parents actually take their kids temperatures and find out they had a low grade fever and send them to school anyway! I was beside myself trying to keep up with this Monday and Tuesday until I was finally able to communicate to the infected families that this was indeed risking the rest of the school population. I think if some of these people spent one day in the front office of their child's school, they would gain a much better respect for what we do for their kids. Bloody noses, concussions, depression, fractured arms, or even just consoling a 5 year old with a tummy ache while we wait for mom to pick them up. I will admit, I do love this part to a certain extent...to be able to make a child feel better when they are missing their mom or dad is a wonderful thing to do for them. Even if all I can do is get them a drink of water and put my fingers through their hair, or dry their tears with a kleenex. I love the little notes I get on my desk from them the next day, thanking me. This makes me happy...
I did have one funny episode in the world of "office triage this week". A 3rd grader came up and told me that her attendance hurt. She had tears running down her face and I asked her to repeat what she had said and she said her attendance hurt and then rubbed her tummy. I tried not to giggle at her as I realized she was trying to tell me her intestines hurt. I had her lay down and smiled as I realized they are learning about the body systems in science and she obviously was taking her lessons very seriously. What a cutie patootie!
I sent my computer to the IT guy for repair and he jacked the whole week up with empty promises and incompetency until Thursday, when I finally brought it home and pulled it apart and tried to fix it on my own. This is when I finally realized it was toast. I opened up the Mac that we just happened to have available at school and tried to make friends. I should be grateful that I get to use the company computer for personal stuff. I should be grateful that I have a brand spanking new laptop. I am trying to be grateful.
I stewed and worried all week about my kids. They are both asthmatic and Bud's locker partner had a confirmed case of Swine Flu. I was sick with the thoughts that if he were to get this, we could be in serious dire straights. His lungs are so weak that we are lucky if he only gets pneumonia 3 times a year. More often than not it is half a dozen. With this strain of flu and how hard it hits the respiratory system, I shudder to think what we would be up against with him.
Utah finally got H1N1 shot vaccines and were having a clinic Saturday morning at 6:00 a.m. for those kids at high risk. Why would they do it this way? Make it at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning? Is it to weed out the losers who really don't need it, because that isn't what happened. I woke my family up at 5:00 and hauled them down to the Health Department to get them vaccinated
(Duke is diabetic). By the time we got there, I was about the 300th person in line. It was bitter cold and I was ill equipped for the temperature. I left the kids in the car (1 mile away) and stood in line until they let the first batch of people in at 6:00. Approximately 25 people were allowed in and after 30 minutes, no one had come out. I quickly realized that this meant, if I were the 300th person and they were processing less than 50 people an hour, I was going to be outside for a very long time. I had undesirables all around me smoking, hacking their lungs out, snorting their loagies, and cussing obscenities while their small children shivered next to them in their tattered jackets. This is not what I signed up for. After and hour I called Duke on the cell phone and threw in the towel. As I made the long walk back to the car full of sleepy kids, I noticed the line extended to the street. With thousands of people in line, I knew some would turn away disappointed. In the end 5,000 people lined up at this location to receive the 1750 doses allotted. I guess we will take our chances until our Dr's office gets the vaccine.
Which leads me to this question:
WTH!! Didn't we all know this was a problem last spring? Did the manufacturers of the vaccine not start shipping and mixing doses 6 months ago in anticipation for this? What about the shortage of liquid Tamiflu for kids? Did Roche not realize these would be needed and start stockpiling? I don't understand. I can't even find the regular flu shot! We can't take the mist because of our underlying conditions. It's the shot or nothing. The media frenzy surrounding this whole mess only fuels the fire. People panic and start hauling their kids in for every sniffle, demanding Tamiflu, antibiotics etc. We all need to just stay calm. The fact that the Department of Health is in charge of vaccinating us is a scary thought. Government run agencies are so inefficient and ill equipped to handle all of the phone calls associated with the hysteria. For most people, the swine flu is simply another terrible virus that will put them on their backs for several days, for those at risk, it could become dicey though. Let's focus on them and use common sense, right? Oh, I forgot...we have lost our ability to have any common sense in this country.
I don't want this to become a debate about whether or not to get your kids or yourself vaccinated. That is a personal decision and frankly, not one I am interested in debating. I know for me, when Bud was an infant and he was not allowed to be vaccinated for Pertussis for health reasons, he ended up contracting it and almost died. This is why I will choose to vaccinate when reasonable. Camping put in front of the State Clinic is not reasonable and I should have listened to Lippy when she told me not to do it.
(Yes, you were right...I was wrong, you owe me a Snickers).
So now we just got back from the football game and although we shut them out, the weather was atrocious and the fans for the opposing team were taunting us as we went to our cars. Whaaa? This is little league football. Do parents really feel it is appropriate to set this type of example for their children?
I am done whining and if you actually made it through this whole post and comment with anything that remotely shows you actually paid attention to what you read, I congratulate you. I think I will be glad to start fresh this week.
I promise I will be back to reading each of your posts this week! I miss you!
