<p>Oh, the abroad questions are fun. When my daughter was living in Delhi, she wanted to know if it was safe to eat eggs that had not been refrigerated for 24 hours, apparently purchased from a street vendor. I told her to throw them out – I didn’t know really and other people told me it would be o.k., but my reasoning was something like this: if she throws them out, no harm done except that she’s lost whatever she paid for the eggs. If she ate them and later got sick for any reason, then (a) we wouldn’t know if it was the eggs or not, and (b) as her mom, I’d never forgive myself for telling her that she could eat them. I’m glad that she did throw them out – because she was newly arrived in Delhi at the time, and of course she did get sick the following week with stomach cramps and diarrhea, which is pretty much to be expected – but at least I didn’t have to worry about whether it was the eggs that did it.</p>
<p>Moral to kids: if you want to know whether something is “safe” or not, don’t ask your mom. Moms always err on the side of caution.</p>
<p>S1 (in another state): Mom, I think I’ve broken my wrist. We were fighting with pugli sticks. I hit the guy hard and then my wrist hurt really bad.<br>
I’m mad because I was gonna make it to the finals and now I have to wear glasses because I can’t put my contacts in with that hand.
Don’t worry, they wrapped it up and gave me some super Tylenols.<br>
I’m gonna take about four of them before the swim test tomorrow.</p>
<p>D2: Mom I think I have pink eye.
Me: So go to the health center.
D2: Oh my friend has it can’t I just take her medicine? and the health center sent her to the hospital and now she is wearing an eye patch I don’t want to do that.
Me; NO you can’t share eye medication, and I don’t know why the health center would send her to the hospital for that, but you have to check it out.</p>
<p>Result: D2 had pink eye, friend had a scratched cornea.</p>
<p>and this conversation with D1’s counselor while at summer camp. Scenario is that this is the first day of the first vacation my DH and I had taken since the kids were born; the first time all were out of the house for a couple of weeks. Third day of camp.</p>
<p>Counselor: Hello, Mrs Plum1? Now don’t worry but it seems your daughter broke her wrist, playing basketball. Its not too bad but you should pick her up.
Me: How do you know?
Counselor: Well the xray dr said it wasnt too bad, but she needs to be seen by a specialist.
Me; Ok, we will be there in several hours. Which wrist is it?
Counselor: Oh, by the way, did I say one wrist? It seems she broke both.</p>
<p>straight to orthopedic surgeon; surgery on one wrist, one hard cast, one soft. End of camp. End of our first opportunity to be empty nesters…but that opportunity has returned! Recently got a funny phone call from my son’s grad school advisor who wanted to speak to him and dialed his home phone by mistake. I just couldn’t resist asking how he was doing in school! It was fun to have an impromptu “teacher conference”…what amazed me is she referred to S as “her colleague!”</p>
<p>Angry 18yo D calling from airport security: “Alright, what I want to know is, WHO IN THE H*LL PUT TWO BOTTLES OF WINE IN MY BACKPACK?!”</p>
<p>I didn’t know either, but quickly found out.</p>
<p>D was in summer school and asked us to bring her backpack, extra notebooks/pencils, etc. when she met us at a wedding. So I put the backpack in the van. While picking up champagne for the reception, H bought a couple bottles of wine for us–which he stuffed in the backback–just some old thing one of the kids left in the van, he thought–to keep them from rolling around. D grabbed the backpack when we dropped her off at the airport the next day–you think she would’ve noticed it was kinda heavy for a few notebooks. . .</p>
<p>She was so embarrassed–the security guys were like, “Sure kid–wink, wink–you just have NO IDEA how that wine got into your backpack. Ha, ha–that’s a lame one. . .” They said they had to dump it–;)</p>
<p>LETTER home from camp: I’m having some trouble breathing and I went to the nurse but she said they don’t have my inhalers.</p>
<p>NO KIDDING! My ASTHMA child. Not allowed to phone home! Nurse didn’t phone home. Her paperwork explained her asthma, she had all her inhalers there (but they don’t allow irresponsible kids to keep them on their person - they leave them with nurses who misplace them and fail to call the parent!). </p>
<p>So my kid is having breathing trouble for the two days it takes me to get the letter and call them. AND…the ONLY other thing on her health form is NO BENADRYL. What did they do for her asthma cough instead of FINDING her (multiple) inhalers!? They gave her benadryl and she passed out during vespers.</p>
<p>Yea, we made SURE that our kids were allowed to hold their own inhalers at their each of their respective schools (rarely needed them but good for them to have when they needed them). Wow, that camp was insane–talk about liability waiting to happen!</p>
<p>Hope your child was OK–sometimes you wonder where the minds of the folks who run these programs are and whether they’ve ever known anyone with a breathing problem. <sigh> Yes, there are the few who may abuse their inhalers but most are quite responsible–they could have families sign waivers & let the kids hold on at least to the rescue inhaler.</sigh></p>
<p>What is it with camp/school nurses and asthma? In middle school, DD had to use an inhaler before PE. She showed up every single day at the same time. Every single day, the nurse acted like it was the first time and she would spend five minutes searching for the inhaler and DD would be late to PE. Pretty soon the PE teacher started penalizing her with a lower grade. I called the nurse to discuss and her answer was, “Well, if it’s a problem for her to be late, she can leave the prior class early.” The prior class was geometry. We finally got permission (due to a very savvy nurse at the pediatrician’s office) for her to carry her little inhaler on her person.</p>
<p>These days, just as my D is turning 18 - they can FINALLY carry their own inhalers almost everywhere. She was probably…oh…10 (?) at the time. This is a child who had he own inhaler since about age 5. I GET that one can overdose and actually die. I also GET that she can die if she has to write home to get her inhaler. This was actually a FABULOUS camp.And yes, i wrote the director, and actually sent her back there the next year. And INSISTED she keep it on her. Since then, she’s been diagnosed with allergies to SO many things, has an Epi pen (never had to use it !). It’s a wonder she’s alive…was given an antibiotic to which she’s allergic (accidentally, by the pharmacy…fortunately it was a refill so I recognized it wasn’t the same color), broke her arm, stitches THREE times, 2 concussion (horse jumping!). </p>
<p>This year…her last year as a “child”…I took all her “stuff” to the nurse as required, paperwork, epi, inhalers…they said “Oh, no…SHE keeps all that stuff on her person now”. Geesh. Just in time for her to be a grown up. Of course, they still can’t carry a Midol… But that’s another story. </p>
<p>Anyway…true to the thread…no bad ending - it’s all good.</p>
<p>My mom received the following call at 3 a.m. from the highway patrol:</p>
<p>“Ma’am, let me tell you first your son is fine. He was parked along the interstate taking a nap (he had gone to a concert and was too tired to make it all the way home), and started the car in his sleep and started driving. He ran into a railing along the highway.” Luckily, he was only going about 5 miles an hour.</p>
<p>My brother was a big sleepwalker. From then on he always hid the keys from himself :)</p>
<p>My son from college:</p>
<p>“Um, mom, when I hold my arm out in front of me, I can’t lift my wrist up. I just have a dangling hand. It’s been like this all day. Should I go to the doctor?” Um, yeah! Slept on in wrong and damaged the nerve; luckily, recovered in a few months.</p>
<p>Hold on! I’m a school nurse and I must address the above. Yes, I’m sure SOME school nurses do behave like that. However, my system is to bring the child in to my office, review signs and symptoms, review administration, review rules and regulations. If I feel they are responsible and aware enough to carry and self-administer, so be it! I inform teachers the kids will be “carrying” and I ask to be informed if the child needs the inhaler in a “rescue” situation so I can assess the severity of the attack. The kids who need it pre-exercise? Well, I 'd rather they keep it their gym locker and USE it instead of climbing 2 flights of stairs to my office.
PS If they forget the inhaler at home, I have a couple of spares in my office and standing orders to use it for any diagnosed asthmatic.
OK I’ll get off my soapbox now. Carry on…</p>
<p>Not a phone call but a disgusting food story.</p>
<p>Right after we got married, my hubby and I were driving somewhere… He had grabbed a snack from the fridge to eat while we were on the road.</p>
<p>Me: You made hot dogs last night?
H: what? No, you made them last week.
Me: No, I didn 't, the last time we had hot dogs was um… 2 weeks ago. I thought you ate them back then.
H: No. They’re still good aren’t they?
Me: No! </p>
<p>I pulled over and took the hotdogs from him- he’d already eaten 2 of them. They smelled funny and were slimy.</p>
<p>Hubby has the constitution of a horse- the only consequence was green diarhea. To this day he still can’t tell when something is spoiled. It’s a running joke in our family that if I wanted to get rid of him I could put something in his food- he wouldn’t know the difference!</p>
<p>Woody, you sound like you have a lot of common sense. What bothered DD most was that every day she went in at exactly the same time and every day the nurse acted like it was a total surprise and had to spend five minutes looking for the inhaler. That just seemed really disorganized and inefficient.</p>
<p>Yea, food poisoning (self-induced) is probably a lot more common than folks realize. LOL!</p>
<p>A friend’s family had to fight for their D’s right to self-test for her diabetes and administer insulin, tho she had been doing it just fine from the time she was 3. A new school nurse changed the rules when she was about 12 and she almost passed out trying to reach the school nurse to get her testing and insulin! </p>
<p>Sometimes, you wonder about the parking of common sense of some of these folks!</p>
<p>Here’s a story about a phone call from my mother. My mom lives with us and was looking forward to us (me, hubby, and both kids) going on our first family vacation. She was relishing the thought of having the house to herself for 18 days.</p>
<p>The first night on our vacation, we were at my sisters house 3000 miles away when hubby’s cell phone rang. It was the EMT calling to tell us that mom fell down one set of stairs in our split level home (about 3 steps) and they think she broke her ankle. They were transporting her to the local hospital. The EMT was nice enough to give us the hospital’s main phone number.</p>
<p>A few hours later we get through to her in the emergency room. Yes, her ankle was fractured- more like shattered. She had surgery the next day. She ended up with a plate, 3 rods, 10 screws, and more hardware.</p>
<p>Because we didn’t have a lot of money… I had paid for our entire vacation before we left on vacation. The only thing we had to pay for was food and souvenirs. We couldn’t come home early to help mom without losing over $4000. So we arranged for her to be moved to a nursing home/rehab while we were gone and had her friends visit. My sister and I called her every day. Am I a horrible daughter? Yep. Was it a great vacation? Yep. Was mom upset we didn’t come home? A little. She was more upset that my hubby (her SIL) didn’t come home to take care of her. </p>
<p>She has always liked him better than me… Yes I know I’m cold hearted but sometimes you have to suffer the consequences. Was she in danger in the nursing home? No. She was safer there than at our house alone. Since then, we have moved to a colonial style house and have converted the basement to a MIL suite to include a chair lift for the stairs.</p>
<p>I am glad you made a sensible choice and know that your nuclear family needed that time together! Sometimes people make emotional choices that they regret and resent for the rest of their lives. Sounds like your mom will just have to deal with her own issues and I’m so glad you don’t allow her to “guilt” you or your family. It’s great that she lives with all of you, but sometimes too much togetherness can be a bit wearing.</p>
Yes I know I’m cold hearted but sometimes you have to suffer the consequences. Was she in danger in the nursing home? No. She was safer there than at our house alone. Since then, we have moved to a colonial style house and have converted the basement to a MIL suite to include a chair lift for the stairs.</p>