In Remembrance of Me

Friday, April 04, 2003

Ok, here I am going to go off on STUPID daycare people!!!!! For those who don't know, Ian has asthma. When he gets a cold, especially a chest cold, it can aggrivate his asthma. I have told the director of the school this. I signed the paperwork so they could give him his inhaler. I showed her where the inhaler was, in his backpack, and how to use it. Well Tuesday, when I went into pick the kids up, Ian was wearing different clothes than I sent him to school in. As it is the beginning of Mud Season, I assumed he got dirty playing outside and they had to change him. But the girl who was there watching the "end of the day" kids told me that, no, he had wet himself during nap time. Alarm bells start going off in my head immediately because, for one thing, Ian doesn't sleep during nap time anymore and hasn't for about a year. Then she proceeds to tell me that he was lethargic all day and was falling asleep in the snow bank outside during play time. So I ask her, "Do you know he has asthma?" And her answer is a wide-eyed, innocent, "No, I didn't." AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So he went for a full day with depressed respiration, and not only did no one do anything about it, no one even called me to ask if this might be a problem!!!!!!! But wait for it, it gets worse. Ian is only 4. And for the last almost 2 years his asthma has been under control with daily Pulmacort treatments. He hasn't had to use his inhaler because he hasn't had an attack in that long. So John drops the kids off yesterday and is talking to the director of the school about what happened with Ian. She says, "Yeah, he was acting a little run down yesterday." So John asks "Well didn't someone think to check his breathing or give him his inhaler?" and she says "We didn't hear him wheezing and he didn't ask for his inhaler". **ok, picture me jumping up and down wide-eyed and screaming like a banshee at this point** HE'S FOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FOR CRYING UP A TREE!!!!!!!!!!!! IF HE CAN TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF WHAT ARE WE PAYING YOU FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE THE RESPONSIBLE ADULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE TAKING CARE OF HIM??????????? What in the world do some people use for brains?! So now we are trying to teach Ian that if he feels like that again he needs to go and get the teacher and ask for his inhaler. *sigh* I was hoping that he could at least get to kindergarden before he had to start taking this much responsibility for his own health care. [mother guilt moment]None of this would be happening if I could stay home and take care of my kids myself. Damnit.[/mother guilt moment] Ok, I know. They need to socialize to a certain extent at this age to avoid being repressed, neurotic kindergardeners like their mother. And it is a good thing for him to become responsible and invested in his own health care. To be more aware of his body and how to interpret what is going on and to react to it. The sooner he learns his own rhythms, the sooner he can begin to learn the rhythms of the world around him.[mother guilt moment]But he's my baby, and I need to take care of him :o([/mother guilt moment] Dang being a mom is a pain sometimes.