How many of you are old enough to remember the Tylenol scare? It was 1982 and I was still in high school when seven people were killed after they took Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide.

That’s the year Halloween’s appeal dwindled to next to nothing. It’s also when tamper-resistant product packaging made its debut.

Perhaps it was then that school rules for administering medicines got out of hand.

To have the school nurse give my son medicine, I can’t just take the medicine to school. It has to be prescribed by the doctor, with the dosing information printed on the pharmacy label.  That goes for over-the-counter medicines, too. That means I have to get the doctor to prescribe the over-the-counter medicine, and I have to get the pharmacist to print a label for it.

Then there’s the paperwork. The doctor has to fill out a form for the school nurse to be able to give the medicine. Doctors don’t hand you this form when they prescribe the medicine, so you have to go to the school nurse to get the form and then go back to the doctor to get him to sign it. Of course, some parents may be ahead of the game and go to the nurse for the form before they take the child to the doctor, just in case the doctor prescribes medicine that needs to be given during the school day.

That’s a lot of running around. I’ve decided it’s easier just to take a few minutes off work and go to school to ensure my son gets his asthma medicine during this flare-up. I’ll be better prepared next time. Or not.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 8:31 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.