Sunday, October 14, 2012

Too Bad Plan B Pill Doesn’t Cure Asthma

Wonderfully DysfunctionalI got a call from the school nurse last week. It went something like this:

“Your son is having an asthma attack. Please pick him up.”

“Oh shit!  Give him a breathing treatment.”

“I can’t," the nurse snapped. "You didn’t provide the proper doctor-signed forms.”

“REALLY? You’re not gunna treat him?”

“I can’t. You had plenty of notice about providing the proper forms....and you sent him in with an expired inhaler.”  The lecture went on.

So, my son was sucking air through a straw in the midst of an asthma attack, sitting next to a cabinet full of inhalers, the nurse unable to break the rules to help him. Meanwhile, in a NY city school, a nurse is handing out Plan-B morning after pills like a pez dispenser. I can’t help but feel like regulation has taken the place of common sense.

In the ABC News report, New York City Schools Give Plan B 'Morning After' Pill to Teens,
Wallace states, "I do think we need to use caution in providing the Plan B pill to teens who may not fully understand why and how to use it."

Really? Do ya think?

The school nurse can’t give a Tums without a notarized letter from a pediatrician, but Plan B pills and contraception? How many do ya want?

I’m not taking a stand for or against Plan B, I’m just saying lets be consistent. We can’t keep buying a bigger garbage can, sometimes we need to get off our ass and take out the garbage.

Where do you see contradiction?

Thanks for stopping by.
Please support me with your honesty.
Buffi

18 comments:

  1. These rules make no sense to me and infuriate me on so many levels it is hard to write about it. When someone dies from stupidity will it change?

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    1. Lynda - exactly. The worst part is the nurse knows my son and has all his forms from last year. I felt sorry for the nurse cause I put her in a bad position, but it's sad that we are such a lawsuit-fearful country now.
      Buffi

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  2. Holly - it IS crazy - but our country is so scared of lawsuits these days, fear takes the place of common sense.
    Buffi

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  3. Buffi, this is definitely a sign of the times. In Arizona, where I no longer live, a mentally ill young man shot Gabrielle Giffords at a Safeway(my son was in that Safeway when the shooting began) and the AZ legislature decides that people should be able to carry loaded guns into public places so they can defend themselves in case someone starts shooting at them. An elementary school student is arrested for bringing nail clippers to school. "It was horrible! That kid massacred 100's of students with those nail clippers!" In the meantime, your asthmatic son can't get his inhaler from the school nurse?? We are fast becoming a country of idiots.

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    1. Hi Judie - A bunch of lawsuit-crazed idiots! Remember that kid that was charged with sexual harrasement for kissing a classmate - I prob have the story wrong, but it was in the same vain. Thanks for stopping by - Loved the fall pic on your blog.
      Buffi

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  4. This is why I teach my children to IGNORE certain rules in school. My son has asthma, and carries an inhaler with him daily. He knows how to hide it and he also knows that government schools are not your friend, they will end up killing you to prove a point and follow rules. Its been 3 years now and he has yet to be caught. Sorry but with as oppressive as these schools have become, its time to start teaching our children a useful survival skill, Deception.

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    1. Yeah - my son is packn' an inhailer now too! I guess there are times we need to teach our kids how to protect themselves even if it does break the rules. But, they are used to me breaking the rules ;)
      Thanks for stopping by.
      Buffi

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  5. Buffi I have another for you...My Granddaughter who is a Type 1 juvenile diabetic and wears an insulin pump...was in the hospital for one of her diabetic roller coaster blood sugar level events and missed a couple more days of school after getting out of the hospital.(When she gets that sick it takes her several days to get back to functioning.) So she goes back to school and they call her in the office and chew her out for missing school THEN THE SUSPEND HER FOR THREE MORE DAYS!

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    1. Oh... I would have some words for that school. Really?? Where is the common sense these days?? Hope she had a great vacation from school just the same. :)
      - Buffi

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  6. but u told on yourself tho hon and u want backup??? Next time get the right forms into the school, i mean U WERE AWARE YOUUR CHILD HAD ASTHMA CORRECT??

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    1. Great point Baby Vamp. I agree completely. I was at fault -the nurse had her hands tied. Now, for my point - why are nurses allowed to give out PlanB but not Tums/Motrin/Advil or inhailers. Just saying there seems to be an inbalance. Interested to hear your opinion.
      Thanks,
      Buffi

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  7. Asthma medication has a lot more potential to be both dangerous and addictive than a single dose of Plan B.

    The boy in question was apparently not in serious imminent danger, or the school would have been calling an ambulance and telling the mother to meet the child at the hospital, not asking her to retrieve him. (And we'd be hearing that he had to be rushed to the hospital from the school as a part of this story.)

    If the nurse had gone ahead and administered either expired or non-prescribed medication without the proper doctor's paperwork, she would have been exposing herself to losing her job and her license (and potentially getting in even more trouble if problems arose) for the sake of a kid who was apparently not in immediate danger.

    More focus in this case should be on how careless it is for parents to send their children to school without the proper medication they need, and (in case the school administration or officials need to administer it) the proper paperwork from a doctor providing direction on how it is to be handled.

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    1. Thanks for weighing in here "Anonymous". I agree 100% - very careless for a parent to send their child to school without proper medication and paperwork - not the first time I messed up and will not be the last. Nobody would disagree that I put the nurse in a bad position and she had no choice.

      BUT.. the real question here is... do you really think that PlanB pill is less dangerous than, say TUMS or Motrin? And does it make sense that she is allowed and even encouraged to dispense PlanB, but not TUMS or Mortin?

      Thanks for your participation in the conversation.
      Buffi

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    2. Tim - Exactly my point. We are a fearful country - we can't even take a crap without a usr manual from the government telling us how to wipe propperly.
      Buffi

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  8. I'm a h.s. admin, and this week a parent ACTUALLY said to me on the phone, "I didn't authorize you to call 911." His student with nut allergies had gone to our nurse with a reaction after eating the wrong thing...swelling lips, tongue, and throat. No epi-pen at school, no mention of allergies in the student's records, but he told us all about going to the allergist a few times a year and about his epi-pen at home.

    I'm with you on the call for common sense--from schools, parents, and courts...So I don't have to say again, "It's an automatic 911 call we will make in the same situation for any student enrolled here, and I will not delay to ask for your authorization." Incredible.

    Thanks for posting about this.

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  9. Gah! Also without going into whether I'm for or against this kind of Plan B distribution, I've got to say there are situations where common sense needs to win over paperwork. I'd call "enabling someone to breathe" one of those. I understand there might be consequences to proceeding without proper paperwork in place . . . but are those consequences really worse than those from not proceeding?

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  10. I do not want to go to far in depth, as there are a lot points of view. Last I checked planB is in use for the prevention of a life(whether you are for it or not) and second asthma meds are for the saving of a life...what kind of society have we come too....? loved the story

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