Well, we're not out of the woods yet.
My 8yr old son went back to school last Wed afternoon and again on Thursday and Friday. On Friday afternoon I got a call from the school to say he seemed unwell, but his teacher thought he was 'faking'. My son likes school and doesn't fake illness, so I went to bring him home.
It turns out he was very unwell again, with soaring temperature, shivery, and crying. Another teacher found him in the cloakroom trying to keep warm under someone else's coat because he didn't want to go outside at lunchtime. And his own teacher had accused him of faking!
What kind of experience is that for a primary school pupil?
That was Friday. He was sick several times on Fri/Sat and so I took him to our local infirmary, where a doctor saw him. She said I should keep a close eye and perhaps take him to Ninewells Hospital if I were concerned.
By late Saturday evening he was unable to keep anything down, not even Calpol and, as his temperature was high and my only recourse was to keep spongeing him down with tepid water, I was powerless to nurse him any more. He was very pale, and quite unresponsive by then, so I prevailed upon the doctor at Ninewells to take a look at him.
We arrived at the hospital at midnight Saturday, and my son was sent for x-ray. They also took bloods and gave him anti-sickness treatment. I stayed with him until 05.00. I had to go home owing to the situation there. He was in a deep sleep when I left.
After about 3 hours sleep, I took my younger son to his aunty's, left Mrs AO at home alone, and headed for the hospital. The doctors had diagnosed a lung infection and an infection in my son's blood. He was now on an IV drip for rehydration and admin of antibiotics.
He slept a lot on Sunday, but recovered very well, and we got him home at tea time on Monday. He has just wakened from a mammoth sleep from tea time last evening and is getting into a good breakfast. He's on antib's twice daily for a week.
I'm still too angry to speak to the school about his teacher.
On a lighter note...we got a call from nursery yesterday at 09.30 to say that my younger son had been sick and could I come and get him. Mrs Ao nearly ran away then. I thought 'Oh no, here we go again'.
I went to collect him and my wee son said, "I was sick, daddy, and I blowed and blowed the bubbles...". Further investigation revealed that his nursery teacher had given the kids a container of soap and a straw to blow bubbles. He had sooked instead of blawin' and it had made him throw up his milky breakfast all over the nursery floor.
We now have a perfectly healthy nursery child at home because he can't go back to nursery for 48 hours because he was sick...regardless of the reason, it seems.
Bloody schools, eh?...........