“Bus”-ted

November 20, 2013| Jason Michael Reynolds|11 Minutes
November 20, 2013|By Jason Michael Reynolds|11 Minutes

“Bus”-ted

So I have a lot to blog about, but I figured… my computer clock says 11:18pm… which means it’s around 10:45pm (I know, my clock is somewhere around a half hour fast. Don’t ask.)

Point being I have limited time. I will blog about this… and it doesn’t have to do with a baby. But it is bugging me. And I need to vent.

So, Jonny has a bit of a cold.

It is in fact, November. He goes to many public places with other kids who probably have colds. He got it from some other kid in some other place (probably school).  This particular cold has come and gone and started around the first week of October.

For Jonny, his colds will usually start in the back of his throat. Drainage will build up overnight and he will have the most awful sounding cough known to mankind come morning. He will feel just fine, except for said hacking death cough, like water down the wrong pipe, every 10 seconds all morning. …and here’s the kicker, it only lasts until about 11am.

Then the cough subsides, maybe a bit of a runny nose, but no fever, no lethargy, no unusual fatigue or loss of appetite. Just a happy boy.

Well, the first day he woke up with the cough, I didn’t notice any secondary symptoms, Jonny said he felt all right so I sent him on the bus to school.

When I went to pick him up at the bus stop at the end of the school day, Jonny’s bus driver made a point of telling me just how much he was coughing the whole way to school. And later that day, I was informed by one of his teachers that the bus driver also informed them as well. But, since there were no secondary symptoms (they even took his temperature and asked him if he wanted to lay down  — which of course, he did) they couldn’t really do anything.

I talked with Jonny’s teacher about it and she said she didn’t really notice any coughing at all…

So the rest of October and first few weeks of November went something like this…

Day 2: Jonny still has same cough. After the passive aggressive reprimand from his bus driver, I told Jonny to try not to cough on the bus. Jonny promptly gets on the bus and informs the bus driver, “My Daddy says I can’t cough on the bus.” And promptly coughs the whole way there. Daddy is met at home by a bus driver who again, passive-aggressively tells Daddy how bad his cough sounded this morning. There is a bit of a runny nose but nothing to fret about (so I think).

Day 3: Jonny again gets on the bus… and noticing he has a runny nose, asks the bus driver for a tissue. The bus driver doesn’t have one. Daddy receives flat accusing stare from the bus driver.

Day 7-ish? Jonny’s cough is breaking up but the runny nose is turning green…Daddy opts to keep Jonny home from school. By 10:30am, Jonny is miraculously better and asking to go somewhere fun. Daddy informs him that he is home “sick” and can therefore go nowhere but the doctor’s office for the day. Jonny and Daddy both have no fun for the day.

Day (following weekish): Jonny is feeling better… Bus driver is home sick. >< (of course he must have gotten it from MY kid).

Next Day: Jonny wakes up lethargically, was coughing for a bit of the night. Daddy feels bad for the bus driver and keeps Jonny home. Around 10:30, cough has subsided, routine miraculous recovery ensues. Jonny asks again to go somewhere fun. Daddy obliges by driving him to school instead. Fun enough?

I talked with Jonny’s teacher AGAIN about it and she said she didn’t really notice any coughing at all… hmmmm.

Next Day after that: Bus driver is back. Informs Daddy in no uncertain terms that he is on anti-biotics and asks if Jonny has been to a Doctor yet. Daddy informs Bus driver that he took him once… He was fine by the time the doctor could see him.

Following week: Jonny’s cold has nearly run its course. Bus driver informs Daddy that Jonny is disruptive on the bus. Is too loud, is an unruly child, and instigates the other children into being loud and unruly. Requests that Jonny be seated by himself at all times. Daddy is floored by this characterization. Bus driver has him for what, 10 minutes out of his day?

Jonah is born somewhere about here. I only remember because his cough had returned at just that point (according to Jonny’s nanny who dropped him off at his bus stop and picked him up). I wasn’t there to see the bus driver but I can still see the flat accusing stare I’m sure he had at seeing my pandemic-causing child.

This “sick business” has become a routine for Jonny, who (after realizing this business with the coughing can get him out of school) now whines to Daddy that he “Feels baaaad” every morning and musters up a forced pseudo-cough worthy of an Oscar (unless Daddy keeps him home from school, then at 9:15, wants to go to Chuck E. Cheeses).

He feeds this routine to the bus driver. Bus driver takes the bait. (Hook, line, and sinker). Bus driver informs Daddy he should definitely go see a doctor as he may have (not kidding) walking pneumonia.

Last Monday: Bus driver again chirping about “green runny nose of walking-pneumonial doom”…

Daddy has had about enough and informs the bus driver that Jonny’s mommy is an ICU nurse and if she doesn’t think it’s walking pneumonia… it isn’t walking pneumonia. And if she thinks he is okay to send to school…he’s going to school.

Last Friday: Jonny informs Daddy he “doesn’t like school anymore.” Daddy says “tough cookies” (as Daddy’s Daddy told him) and sends him on the bus anyways. Daddy receives a call from the bus driver that morning informing Daddy that Jonny was refusing to get off the bus at school and he has been reprimanded for carrying him off the bus. (Bus drivers are not to make any physical contact with the children). He then infers that “because of Jonathan’s behavioral issues something needs to change” (implying that Daddy not send him on the bus anymore).

Daddy thinks that is probably best (and not because of “Jonathan’s behavioral issues”). Daddy drives to school himself to bring Jonny home.

So… now Daddy gets to use 45 minutes of his work day to take Jonny to school, park in the chaos (and walk him to his class room) and pick him up afterward.

Why did it come to this? Jonny rode the bus ALL LAST YEAR without a single incident.

Honestly, I don’t think the bus driver liked Jonny at all. He always referred to him as “Jonathan.” Not even his teachers, doctors, or great Aunts call him that. I honestly wonder if the behavioral “issues” he was observing were as a direct result of the bus driver addressing Jonny and Jonny not realizing he was being spoken to.  – Though the refusal to get off the bus and throwing a tantrum about it…is all Jonny. I have seen him to that to us (Mama and I), but I have never heard about it with anyone else. 

Also the bus driver is outside of his usual route. Because of the Kindergarten program Jonny was recommended into by his IEP (that’s another story), the district is forced to offer transportation to those kids even if they are out of their home school area (which we are).

Despite that, I don’t understand the sensitivity to a common cold. Afterall, he is an elementary school bus driver. The germs abound with kids. I understand that he got sick when Jonny got sick and HE had to take a day off…but if it wasn’t from Jonny (and Mama says if there’s no temp there’s no contagion) it would be from somebody else. And honestly, I’ve been with the kid a little bit longer I am fine… and Mama is fine… and Jonah is fine.

I just don’t get it…