Home Sick

I guess I should consider myself lucky that it hasn't happened until now, but for the first time ever in our family, all three children fell sick at the same time. First the baby's cheeks were looking flushed, then I got the call from the school nurse: both girls were in the infirmary with temperatures.

When I went to pick them up, I had yet another "we're not in Kansas anymore" moment. The school nurse, after showing me the girls' inflamed throats with a popsicle stick, handed me a piece of paper with what was essentially a prescription for medication, including 3 substances, a description of their application, and notably not including any sort of doctor's signature. I asked her how I should obtain said medicine, and she said just go to any pharmacy and they'll sell it to you. This included two antibiotic substances, I might add, that surely would require a doctor's signature in the States. I guess she is a nurse, but this kind of treatment is new to me. In the litigation-happy culture where I'm from, most school nurses wouldn't so much as touch a recommendation for treatment with a ten-foot pole, much less diagnose an illness and prescribe medication.

For better or worse we got the meds and they seem to be doing the trick. It's all quite different but we're rolling with it. Looks like we get a three-day weekend.

The girls were showing me how lousy they felt with their faces whilst creating a toy pony obstacle course, when at the last moment the baby burst onto the scene, and a nanosecond later the lovely tower was felled.

Later they were able to find an activity they could all agree on: rearranging furniture and creating a general disarray.