Philip B
Well-known member
Here's a spooky one you guys will really enjoy.
Last Thursday while engaged in my normal routine (1/2 days) at my high school, I received a frantic call from our district office. It seems that one of the fourth grade teachers had totally lost control of her kids and they were terrorizing everyone at our elementary school. Both the superintendent and elementary principal were out of the district and they needed an administrator to regain control of this group of kids. I responded to this request for assistance and in fairly short order things were under control.
On Sunday night, I noticed that my throat was getting pretty sore. Monday morning, the school nurse dropped by my school and asked me if I had heard about the strep epidemic which was running through the elementary school. She mentioned that around seventy-five students had tested positive. I asked if the fourth grade had been hit hard and she responded that the fourth grade was the worst group.
Needless to say, I became concerned. I don't think getting strep is something anyone who has had recent AVR surgery needs to get hit with. The consequences can be pretty bad. Strep tends to cause problems in the area of weak heart valves.
Of course, there was an immediate flurry of telephone calls to my cardiologist, surgeon, and primary care doc. All agreed that I needed to get tested immediately and get on a course of antibiotics if I tested positive. I didn't bother to wait to get tested; I started a course of antibiotics on my own.
In the end, all of the docs agreed that I probably messed up the accuracy of the strep test by starting antibiotics on my own, but they also agreed that I need to be on an aggressive course of antibiotics to counter any exposure I may get from being around germy kids.
My throat feels better and a fever that had started to appear has vanished.
The epidemic has begun to make its way into my high school. Twelve kids tested positive today. I'm thinking that I may not be feeling well enough to spend a lot of time at work next week. Hope they can manage without me for a few days.
-Philip
Last Thursday while engaged in my normal routine (1/2 days) at my high school, I received a frantic call from our district office. It seems that one of the fourth grade teachers had totally lost control of her kids and they were terrorizing everyone at our elementary school. Both the superintendent and elementary principal were out of the district and they needed an administrator to regain control of this group of kids. I responded to this request for assistance and in fairly short order things were under control.
On Sunday night, I noticed that my throat was getting pretty sore. Monday morning, the school nurse dropped by my school and asked me if I had heard about the strep epidemic which was running through the elementary school. She mentioned that around seventy-five students had tested positive. I asked if the fourth grade had been hit hard and she responded that the fourth grade was the worst group.
Needless to say, I became concerned. I don't think getting strep is something anyone who has had recent AVR surgery needs to get hit with. The consequences can be pretty bad. Strep tends to cause problems in the area of weak heart valves.
Of course, there was an immediate flurry of telephone calls to my cardiologist, surgeon, and primary care doc. All agreed that I needed to get tested immediately and get on a course of antibiotics if I tested positive. I didn't bother to wait to get tested; I started a course of antibiotics on my own.
In the end, all of the docs agreed that I probably messed up the accuracy of the strep test by starting antibiotics on my own, but they also agreed that I need to be on an aggressive course of antibiotics to counter any exposure I may get from being around germy kids.
My throat feels better and a fever that had started to appear has vanished.
The epidemic has begun to make its way into my high school. Twelve kids tested positive today. I'm thinking that I may not be feeling well enough to spend a lot of time at work next week. Hope they can manage without me for a few days.
-Philip
). (My mom is a retired p.s. herself).
