Thursday, April 07, 2005

Medicine and Hanami No.1

I tried to get Amy's kindergarten teacher today to keep the ventolin and an inhaler at the kindy to use if she needed it, but she refused. I needed to fill out a permission slip, and I could understand that. But even before she told me that, she had a problem with it. When she first saw it, she obviously had no idea what it was, and when I explained it was from NZ, she started said they could only give out medicine that was from a doctor. I explained that it was from a doctor, one in NZ, and that our pediatrician in Japan also knew we had it and used it and he had no problem with it. But she remembered that we were now seeing the city hospital doctor, and asked if he was okay with it, and I had to admit that I had not informed him, so I didn't know.

But I tried to explain that it wasn't a fixed dose, daily medicine, and was different from the ones she was taking from the hospital, and I just wanted them to have it to use if it was necessary, if she started having trouble breathing. She countered that if Amy was getting that bad, I would know and keep her at home, so it shouldn't be necessary. It's not that easy! It's hard to decide when to send her and when to keep her home - you don't want her to miss out on school, fun, play, life etc.

I started to get really mad and said even if she was dying in front of you, you wouldn't use it? She did not say she would, just denied that that was going to happen.

I got so annoyed. The have an old-fashioned, less safe way of dealing with asthma in Japan, yet she made me feel like I was the one with the funny ideas!

Meanwhile, we had a Hanami party with the kids from Amy's kindy. We went to that park above the rive (why can I never remember Japanese park names??), and we all brought o-bentos and I brought balloons and balls and bubbles and called it a 'B' party. The kids spoke no English though!

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