Getting Them Back to School Following Illness

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Charlotte67
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Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:59 am
Location: Cloud 9

Getting Them Back to School Following Illness

Post by Charlotte67 »

Dear All,

My daughter, Y8, has had a horrible half term - She was feeling grotty from day 2 of term, but being a bit of a sceptic, I put this down to a lack of enthusiasm following the long summer break. She quickly went downhill and was very poorly for over a week (off school for 5 days). After a blood test, Glandular Fever was diagnosed - the Dr said that she should be OK now (which is not what most friends have told me...)

A week back at school and she started complaining of feeling ill again, this coincided with the official diagnosis of GF so, again, (mean mum) I thought she might be swinging the lead & sent her to school. Last Thursday she woke up with a temperature of 104 & pretty much stayed that way (a little up and down with Calpol, etc) until Sunday morning.

Her temperature has been 'normal' since Sunday but she is still complaining of feeling ill and spends a huge amount of time asleep.

I feel as though I should be making her get up, pull herself together and get on with things. ....But am I being unreasonable? It's so hard to tell whether she is imagining it / putting it on / really feeing dreadful. Having made her go to school when she was ill I wonder what to do for the best.

I am also worried about the amount of work she has missed.

What would you do?

Charlotte
zorro
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Location: Barnet, Herts

Post by zorro »

I have heard that it takes months to recover from glandular fever, so don't worry too much that she's not fully recovered yet.
Ask the Head of Year at school about giving her some work to do at home.I would check with your GP about recovery time. I expect Hermanmunster can advise!!
I hope she feels better soon , it's horrible when your children are poorly isn't it.
mad?
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Post by mad? »

zorro wrote:I have heard that it takes months to recover from glandular fever, so don't worry too much that she's not fully recovered yet.
Ask the Head of Year at school about giving her some work to do at home.I would check with your GP about recovery time. I expect Hermanmunster can advise!!
I hope she feels better soon , it's horrible when your children are poorly isn't it.
Ditto the above. No point sending her in again before half term, let her have a really good run at getting better. Pehraps her head or one of her friends year could email the work to her?
mad?
T.i.p.s.y

Post by T.i.p.s.y »

This is a tricky one. Glandular Fever can take a long time to get over expecially if she never fully recovered before going back to school (not trying to make you feel guilty) as it can leave a weakness for some time. I wouldn't send her back to school now until after half term and if she needs to sleep then let her do it just make sure she eats foods with lots of anti-oxidants and immune boosters.

I hope she gets better soon. :(
Ed's mum
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Location: Warwickshire.

Post by Ed's mum »

My best friend had it when we were 12/13. She had it quite severely and went from a super-fit sporty girl to someone who really just had to do lots of resting. She was banned from swimming for a whole year - no idea why it was specifically swimming. Her cheeks used to flush much more easily after her illness and she had to accept that she had to live life at a slower pace for quite some time.

I think that, with advice from your doctor, you need to let your daughter take the lead on this one. She's young and when she feels fit and well enough she will want to be up and about and with her friends again! I certainly know that my daughter would not want to be at home any longer than necessary when she could be at school with her friends.

I hope that she starts to feel much better soon - I'm sorry that I didn't realise quite how poorly she was feeling. Kisses to her from me.x
Charlotte67
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Location: Cloud 9

Post by Charlotte67 »

Thanks everyone, perhaps I should be giving her the benefit of the doubt. Difficult because (unlike Ed's mum's daughter) she'd always rather be at home than school.

When she was absent the first week, I asked the school what she could do to catch up & they said to ask a classmate to collect work. I'm surprised that her new form teacher has not contacted me and I shall attempt to get to her tomorrow.
Ed's mum wrote:I hope that she starts to feel much better soon - I'm sorry that I didn't realise quite how poorly she was feeling. Kisses to her from me.x
Well... thats probably my fault as I have not been particularly sympathetic :oops:

Am now trying to make up for it by cooking mashed potato, spinach & gravy which I shall feed to her...
zorro
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Location: Barnet, Herts

Post by zorro »

My children would get better very quickly just to avoid spinach!! :lol: :lol:
andyb
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Location: Buckinghamshire

Post by andyb »

I had glandular fever when I was at school and, like you Charlotte, my Mum thought I was having her on - there's no specific "illness", I just felt completely washed out with no energy or enthusiasm for anything. I was off school on and off for a good couple of weeks before the official diagnosis and then probably 10 days after and even after going back to school I sometimes came home and went straight to bed. Others had it much worse and were lethargic and listless for months if not the whole school year - not constantly but in extended episodes.

I think you should keep her off at least until half term. She may perk up a bit during the holidays when there is no pressure to get better quickly. A brief note to her form tutor asking for copies of notes to be sent home so she doesn't fall behind should help because she won't then dread going back having missed a lot. I can't imagine she's the first to get GF at her school so hopefully they will be sympathetic.

I hope she feels better soon :)

AndyB
KB
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Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:28 pm

Post by KB »

I would def. contact the school to make arrangements for catching up in an ordered way. If you can do this before half term break then she might feel well enough to do the odd bit over the holiday? Even an hour spread over each day would add up & reduce the work load on return to school.
The last thing DD needs is to go back to school to face weeks of trying to catch up - if it were me that prospect would put me off wanting to go back :)
I would ask for each member of staff to outline exactly what she needs to do and then you can check its being done without DD over doing things.
Staff should be able to provide copies of notes/details of homework set. I really wouldn't settle for the 'copy up from a friend' attitude. If your DD has been seriously ill the school has a responsibility to provide support for her return.
I have my suspicions about how much 'real' work she will have missed in Year 8! Making sure she understands topics in maths & science & any new tenses etc in languages would be my personal priorities as those are the areas that are most likely to be built on in the future.
Another idea, if DD is 'off games' for a while when she first goes back could some of the work be done at that time?

I do hope DD feels better soon.
honscupboard
Posts: 119
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:06 pm

Post by honscupboard »

Get her back to see the GP. There are so many bugs about at the moment, it would be easy to blame the GF and she could have easily picked up something else with her immune system so low.
Keep us posted
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