Major Trauma

Most clinic traffic in the elementary school falls under the headings of illness or minor trauma. Our daily report doesn't have a heading for "Teacher wanted to get rid of me" or "I wanted to visit the nurse and kill some time" or "Let's see what a good actor I am". There are usually a lot of headaches, tummy aches, scrapes and scratches. There are the "my mommy gave me Tylenol this morning so she could go to work/play but it wore off and now I have a fever" visits. Then there are the "if you look at it really hard with a magnifying glass maybe you will see something and give me a bandaid" visits. And of course there are the medication visits - for the Ridalin, blood sugar checks and such. And then there is MAJOR TRAUMA. I got to experience Major Trauma while I was on my own today. It wasn't life-threatening major but it was a broken bone major. Actually I did have help. The playground aide who brought the child to me stayed to help. Of course it happened at lunch time when clinic traffic is at its highest. The mom came within about half an hour. The child was in a lot of pain and all I could do was stabilize the arm and apply ice. He was only 5 and thought he was going to die - literally. He asked me through his tears, "Am I going to die?" So I reassured him and tried to distract him and called my sick #1 nurse at home and finally mom came to take him to the ER. What a day!!