Meltdown Week

Long story short: my patience was all used up with the school Clinic Lady (not a nurse) by about Tuesday of this week.  I have had numerous problems with this woman and her attitude in the past, but up until now, I have tried to remain fairly polite and respectful.  However, I pretty much lost it on Thursday.

Clinic Lady called me at work on Thursday to tell me again that Rosie wanted Motrin  (she gets bad headaches when her blood sugar comes down quickly) but she doesn't have a doctor's order for it.  I say again, because this was at least the fourth time this year that we have discussed this issue... twice I had other witnesses present.  The doctor's order was faxed to the school along with all her other orders on August 11th.   I was very short with her on the phone, trying to maintain my cool, and reminded her that indeed she DOES have an order there.   Clinic Lady proceeds to dig through Rosie's chart  while I remain on the phone and finally, guess what... found the order.   Argh.  She also repeatedly tells me that she doesn't remember ever talking about this before, she doesn't understand why she doesn't have the order, blah, blah, blah.   I remain very short with her and get off the phone to return to my work day, but I was mad.

The repeated conversations about the Motrin order was just the latest in a long string of "forgotten" things, misunderstandings, and blatent disregarding of my directions regarding Rosie's care at school.  Earlier this week Clinic Lady treated a low blood sugar of 40 with only TWO glucose tablets.  Another day she messed up Rosie's carb counts and blood sugar, reversing the numbers.   I understand that we all make mistakes, but this stuff has become a serious pattern, and the attitude that accompanies all of it is completely unacceptable.  I've had enough at this point and I decide to call Clinic Lady's supervisor, a nurse in the school system.  

As I am on the phone setting up a meeting with the nurse, Clinic Lady calls me back at work, so I get off the phone with the nurse.  Clinic Lady then proceeds to tell me that I WAS RUDE TO HER and she feels the need to "clear the air".   Yep, that's when I totally lost it.   Rude??  Really?  I have never said most of the things that go through my mind when I deal with her.  Being rude would be the least of her problems if I did! 

We proceeded to "clear the air" in a conversation that lasted about half an hour.... I covered the many reasons I no longer feel that Rosie is safe in her care.  She came back with plenty of excuses and plenty of comments about not knowing what I wanted her to do.  (Reading the one-page very simple school plan I wrote and actually following it would be a good start!)  She ended the call with telling me that she thinks we both need to "learn not to over-react".   I was furious, but I could see that the phone call wasn't getting us anywhere.  

On Friday I met with two nurses from the school district and we covered all the things that medically need to happen to keep Rosie safe.  They weren't especially interested in my concerns over Clinic Lady's attitude, but I understand that they probably had already been told by Clinic Lady that I was a psycho mom or something along those lines.   The nurses will be stopping in at school twice a week for a while, and I'm to call them if things aren't improving.   We'll see....