I just thought I would share this with all of you.  My 5 year old started Kindergarden this week, and I was very thorough about advising the front office, clinic, and his teacher about his CAH.  I submitted a letter from his endo to the school that is being kept on record at the county office as well, but when I advised them that in certain situations, Morgan might need an emergency injection, the school proceeded to tell me they are unable to administer ANY injections, even to the insulin diabetic students they have.  Apparently, the nurses on staff at the schools in my state of Florida, are not licensed to give shots, and in fact, if a child ever did need an injection, a special home nurse would have to be called in.

Well, we all know that when it comes to CAH and crisis, there may not be time to wait for a home nurse to arrive to give an injection.  Fortunately for me, I live less than a half mile from my child's school, and I am home with my 2 toddlers during the day, so I am usually "on call" in case of an emergency and can be at the school within 2 minutes.  But I was concerned about what would happen god forbid if I were out of the area and could not respond in a matter of minutes.  I have been told that the ambulances do not carry Solu-Cortef and are not equipped or trained to deal with CAH crisis.  So here is what I did.

I went to the fire station that responds to the school my son attends.  I talked to the fire chief.  It turns out, there is another little boy within their jurisdiction that also has CAH.  That childs parents gave a "kit" to the fire station that they keep on the truck in case they ever need to respond to an emergency regarding this little boy.  The kit includes of course the emergency instrucions and 2 vials of Solu-Cortef plus syringes and the info on the child's endo.  Since this fire station now has 2 more children in their jurisdiction(my children) with this disorder, they are getting special permission from the medical director and the county for all emergency units, especially the one in my area and the surrounding counties, to carry the Solu-Cortef "kit" and to also be trained about CAH and how to respond.  It turns out, I cannot even leave the Solu-Cortef at the school in the clinic in case of an emergency.  Today I have an appointment at the fire station to go over this info with the captain.  Isn't this great?  I always feared the day Morgan might need an injection and I would have to rely on the school.  Now, I can rest a little easier knowing that by being a little pro-active,  all of the rescue personnel in the next few counties will be trained about CAH and equipped to deal with it in an emergency.  Just thought I would share this with all of you.  Do any of you have the same problem at your schools?