![\"school-nurse-picture\"](\"http:\/\/providentiallife.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/school-nurse-picture.jpg\" "\\"school-nurse-picture\\"")
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I don’t know if you knew this, but when I was a kid I went to the nurse. A lot.<\/p>\n
In kindergarten<\/strong>, when I was in the nurse’s office, getting my temperature read, I could not stop coughing!! I tried and tried but couldn’t. I tried to hold it, and finally I let out a BIG COUGH. And spit out the thermometer. On the floor. And it broke into a million pieces, mercury and all.<\/p>\n In first grade<\/strong>, I wanted to go to the nurse because I didn’t feel good. Mrs. P wouldn’t let me go. Then, my friend Stephanie really needed to go to the nurse, so my teacher’s assistant asked me to bring her. Well, Mrs. P saw us on the way, and thought I was trying to sneak out to the nurse! I got in trouble.<\/p>\n In second grade<\/strong>, my friend Ana had a tick in her afro. True story. I had to hold her hand at the nurse, while our nurse combed through to find it, which she did. 45 minutes later.<\/p>\n In fourth grade<\/strong>, I went to the nurse because I was feeling sick. I didn’t have a fever, so she sent me back to class. I threw up all over Claudia’s chair, during a guest speaker presentation. I went home, and was “the new kid who threw up in class” for about a year.<\/p>\n In fifth grade<\/strong>, I went to the nurse just about every day because I was growing out my bangs. My mom would throw my bang-hair up in a pony tail at the front of my head, and it would inevitable be too tight. I would have headaches.<\/p>\n In middle school<\/strong>, I would try to use the nurse’s office to get out of swimming.<\/p>\n In high school<\/strong>, I didn’t have a nurse’s office, so instead I spent a lot of time in the trainer’s office icing my feet, which lack arches.<\/p>\n The first week of college<\/strong>, I had to go to the health office because I had fungus on my ear. It was big and popped on the boat cruise.<\/p>\n My second year<\/strong>, I went to the health office, and they told me I was fine. I ended up in the ER on Halloween with a pinched nerve.<\/p>\n My senior year<\/strong>, I contracted mono, and had a conversation with the nurse practitioner that went like this:<\/p>\n “I have mono.”<\/strong><\/p>\n “You don’t have a fever.”<\/p>\n “I know, but I have mono.”<\/strong><\/p>\n “You don’t have swollen lymph nodes. You have no signs of mono.”<\/p>\n “I know, but I have mono.”<\/strong><\/p>\n “Umm…”<\/p>\n “Please, just take my blood and see if it’s mono.”<\/strong><\/p>\n —Next day—<\/p>\n “Well, Jennie, how do you feel?”<\/p>\n “Terrible.”<\/strong><\/p>\n “Well, you should. You have mono.”<\/p>\n And today, at school,<\/strong> I had to go to the school nurse. My co-worker suggested I go, and away I went for my heartburn. It was my third trip in two days for Tums, and I hadn’t been caught by the actual nurse, yet. But today, she was there. She told me I should drink chamomile tea, take some tums, add some milk to my coffee (I ran out two days ago), and maybe work on paying attention to what I am eating. In addition, I probably should take some kind of herbal supplement.<\/p>\n She also told me something that I am enthralled to learn!!<\/p>\n She has a theory. I told her I was always sick. And she said:<\/p>\n “Do you happen to bite your nails?”<\/p>\n “Why, yes, I do.”<\/p>\n “Do you wipe your nose a lot?”<\/p>\n “Well yes. In fact, I have a line on my nose because I do it so much.”<\/p>\n “I have that line too! I never meet people with those lines.”<\/p>\n “Well I do.”<\/p>\n “Well, my husband always touches his nose, and always bites his nails, and he is ALWAYS sick.”<\/p>\n And thus begins Operation: No Nail Biting<\/strong><\/p>\n We’ll see how we go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don’t know if you knew this, but when I was a kid I went to the nurse. A lot. In kindergarten, when I was in the nurse’s office, getting my temperature read, I could not stop coughing!! I tried … Continue reading