Step-daughter is a pediatric nurse practitioner, practicing in a red county.

[3Hotdogs]

August, mom came in with two elementary school tykes. She asks for mask medical exemptions -- one kid gets headaches from masking and the other has difficulty breathing.


"Well, if 'Suzie' has headaches, we better have a referral to a neurologist to find the cause of the headaches. If J'ohnny' is having difficulty breathing, I am writing a referral to a pulmonologist to make sure there are no serious problems. If the specialists indicate exemptions are warranted, I will write them."


So far, the specialists have not reported back to the pediatric office.


Wha'd'a make of all that?

[niyad]

1. BRAVA. May she, and all her coworkers, be safe.

[FSogol]

2. LOL, sounds like allergies. The solution is weekly allergy shots and co$tly doctor visits.

[Irish_Dem]

3. No nonsense, smart, professional.

I like your step daughter!

Good for her on how she handled the nutty parent.

[CharleyDog]

31. a health care professional can't just ignore complaints of headaches and difficulty breathing

esp. in children. That would be profoundly bad practice. She undoubtedly saw through the mom's phony complaints, yet, as a practitioner she has to consider all possibilities and ask more questions, seek answers.

We should always be truthful to our nurse practitioners and physicians. Just for the cleansing relief of telling the truth, and also getting the best care.

[Irish_Dem]

33. Exactly. She made the appropriate referrals.

You cannot ignore presenting problems and must act accordingly.

Even if you suspect a patient is trying to game the system, you still have to do the right thing clinically.
Which this NP did.

[samnsara]

4. great reply.. you see kids in mask all the time and they dont gripe or complain

..unless mom and dad do too.

[SergeStorms]

12. Masks haven't slowed down...

my two grandchildren at all. There are times when I wish they would slow down a bit, but I'm so happy they're healthy and will listen to their parents and grandparents.

We all set good examples, of course, and we wear masks whenever we're in public places.

That said, we'll all give a big sigh of relief when they're able to be vaccinated. They're 9 and 7 years old, and when their small bodies have some sort of protection from this damned virus we'll all be a lot happier. 🙂

[XanaDUer2]

5. Sounds like she's being very professional

wouldn't anyone want to know any potential underlying kids' health issues

[brewens]

6. When I first heard people were coming into clinics whining about masks effecting their breathing,

I thought if it was me dealing with them, I'd stick one of those oxygen level/pulse testers on their finger, read it, then say, "put the mask on or get the hell out! NEXT!"

[usaf-vet]

21. From the age of 18 until 22. I proudly wore a mask at least 5 days a week from 07:00 until 16:00.

In fact, everyone else I worked with did the same. No one passed out or required a note not to wear a mask.

I worked in an environment where the team was trying to save lives.

Later today, I will be wearing an N95 mask in my home workshop for my safety.

I the first case, I was a military scrub tech working in an OR. We wore masks for the safety of the patient.

In the second case, woodworking is one of my hobbies, and I have always worn masks for my own safety.

When Covid first became a national health issue, and the expert told us all to wear masks. N95 preferably, I had a box of 50 in my workshop. I since have replenished that supply because I gave dozens away to family and friends.

The mask no mask in my mind is selfishness. Some people do not care about anything but themselves. Those are the very people that will extend this pandemic for months to come.

I would take a bet that a year from now, we will still have Covid hot spots, and life, as we knew it in 2019, will not have returned.

[Johnny2X2X]

7. The mom will just doctor shop

Hopefully they can't do so easily, but there are nuts out there writing exemptions for anyone.

[Ilsa]

8. "Having trouble breathing? Have you been wearing your mask?"

"If you're having trouble breathing, maybe we should test you for COVID-19."

[SergeStorms]

13. Tested for something.

If your child is having difficulty breathing with a simple paper or cloth mask on, there's something seriously wrong with with the child's respiratory system. They need to see a specialist immediately.

[Ilsa]

17. Yep, absolutely. My mind had turned to adult whiners, though. Poor kids. nt

[Kahuna]

9. If people can't wear masks, they can wear those face shields...

It's better than wearing nothing.

[Ms. Toad]

22. face shields do not stop the aerosolized particles,

the primary means of transmisson. Those linger in the air and float about on the breeze if there is a way around the barrier (which there is with a face shield).

[groundloop]

10. My daughter teaches 2nd grade - her students have ZERO problems masking all day

Thankfully she's in one of the school districts in Georgia that is taking this seriously, and thankfully she doesn't have any idiot parents like the mom you dealt with. Unfortunately, and quite predictably, she says there are a handful of teachers at her school who refuse to get vaccinated.... in my most humble opinion they should be out the door on their ass.

As for the mom in the OP..... she obviously has found someone else with far fewer scruples who has written medical exemptions for her two darling kids.

[Hortensis]

25. Our DIL teaches special ed (middle school!) in GA and has had

almost no problems with students and masks. None she hasn't been able to handle.

Agree 200% about unvaccinated teachers. It's also possible that stupid mother didn't obtain exemptions. Hope so.

[GoCubsGo]

28. I know a special ed aide for highly impaired kid here in SC, and she said the district requires

that students be able to remove their masks on their own. Which means the kids she tends to mostly are incapable of doing this. They have cerebral palsy and other severe disabilities. Fortunately, their parents ALL had the sense to vaccinate these children, and the teachers and aides have done so as well. Shocking, considering half this county still remains unvaccinated. But, good on 'em.

Meanwhile, they had 20% of the general student population out in quarantine within two weeks of school's start, with two deaths, and the school board has been trying to find a workaround to the mask bans instituted by our asshole governor and imbeciles who run our statehouse...

[Roy Rolling]

11. Child Abuse

A parent who misrepresents a child’s medical symptoms in an attempt to advance an adult (sometimes political) agenda is guilty of child abuse.

There is even a medical term for it—Munchaesen by proxy syndrome.

https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/hw180537

[OldBaldy1701E]

29. HEAR HEAR! (n/t)

[bucolic_frolic]

14. They're all just practicing medicine

but maybe mom never made it to the specialists because she knows it's bunk.

[JT45242]

15. Awesome job

I work as a volunteer with kids now after having been in the classroom for 20 years.

I only had problems with 2 kids wearing masks in the last 18 months and both were oppositional defiant disorder and autistic. So, refusing to wear a mask correctly was about something else.

We have almost no problems with the youth I work with -- of course the kind of parents who would get their kids to be problematic wouldn't send their kids to our programming (open and affirming).

The only kids that are defiant about masks are the ones who have been brainwashed by their parents.

[C Moon]

16. So the nut believes masking is wrong. But instead of

standing up for her belief and saying her children won’t wear one, she makes up lies using her children. That’s a terrible example she is for her kids.

I find that trumpeters love lying and getting away with it. Makes perfect sense considering their leader.

[Rebl2]

18. My guess

She never took them to the specialists. Probably found a dr that would write the exemptions unfortunately.

[Ms. Toad]

23. My guess, as well.

[wryter2000]

19. A trivial similar case

An MD friend got an email from a patient asked for a note that she couldn’t stand in line at Disneyland because of her asthma. He wrote back that, if her asthma was that bad, she should forget Disneyland and come see him. She switched doctors.

[Jon King]

20. Schools are isolating masked and unmasked students.

Sure, pretend to get an exemption. Then your kid can only associate with other unmasked kids day after day. If there are 20 unmasked kids in the school, they have to stay in a separate class room all day, eat away from others, etc.

Make the choice to not mask have consequences.

[multigraincracker]

24. What a smart caring mom.

I'd suggest she home school em both.

[calimary]

26. Good.

Good for her!

[Joinfortmill]

27. Smart move.

[FakeNoose]

30. I'm happy that your step-daughter saw through the BS

... and she refused to be used by this idiot. If another doctor or nurse wrote her "excuses" ... well, she can't control any of that. At least your daughter can hold her head up.

[markie]

32. I would imagine

that the only 'problem' the kids have (with masks) is their mother