Back-to-School Health Essentials: Physicals, Medications & More

Charlie Shante discusses the importance of scheduling back-to-school health appointments early to ensure your child starts the school year with all required medical clearances and in good health.

• Start scheduling physical exams and immunization appointments in May-June while appointments are still available 
• Avoid using urgent care for school physicals as they don't know your child's full medical history
• Make sure medication forms are completed and submitted to school with copies for your records
• Consider creating an emergency info card with medication dosages for your child's backpack
• Schedule vision and dental appointments before school starts to prevent learning disruptions
• Allow ample time for doctors to complete sports clearance forms (can take up to 7 days)
• Keep copies of all medical paperwork in a dedicated school binder for easy reference

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Chapters

• 1:09 Welcome and Show Introduction
• 2:29 Back to School Health Planning
• 4:51 Medication Management for Students
• 8:11 Dental and Vision Appointments
• 16:49 New Face's Wisdom Tooth Saga
• 23:34 Episode Wrap-Up and Song Lyric

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:35

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Gag is Pod. I am your girl, charlie Shante. Thank you for joining me on another episode and, like I always say, if it's a new episode then it must be Friday. And yeah, you know, if you have not already, please make sure you are subscribing. You are following wherever you listen on your favorite podcasting app. Make sure you go up in that corner. That way, every time a new episode is released, you are one of the first to be notified. And also make sure you're following us on IG, at TheGagIsPod, and the same handle on YouTube as well. All right, so, like I always say, grab your drink, grab your snack, whatever it is that you grab when you listen to this, so we can go ahead and jump in and get into this episode.

Speaker 1: 1:33

I um last year and I told y'all a couple episodes ago y'all really enjoyed my back to school episodes. So I said this year I got to do a couple more episodes because I felt like there was so much stuff that was missed and there's so much to cover, so I'm going to have to make it into a longer series. So I was debating. I was like, should I start before the holiday or should I start after the holiday? But this particular topic, I'm like I need to start this one before the holiday because by the time the holiday come it might be a little bit too late and I realized that not everyone who listens child goes to traditional school, meaning they don't start in August, september. Some of them do year round schooling, which means they start in July. So you know, I want to make sure I'm encompassing and I'm getting all of my audience. I don't want anybody to feel left out. I don't want anybody to be like man. This information came to me a little too late, so let me go ahead and give you that information. So one of the things that we always forget about when school starts back is paperwork and kids health Right, so I got my notes today. So we have to make sure that our kids get physicals they have shots sports physicals in the whole nine yards physicals they have shots sports physicals in the whole nine yards. So I have a couple of little bullet points that I'm going to talk about to help us get through this.

Speaker 1: 3:06

When I say this start now, because the longer that you wait to make appointments, the less appointments they're going to have and you're just going to have to take whatever they have, or you're going to get caught up going to an urgent care or one of these places that you can get a school physical or sports physical for $25 and $35. And I 1000%, 1000% disagree with that, because only your child's doctor knows your doctor. If you're going to a place like an urgent care or a place that specializes in children's physicals, they don't know your child as a whole. This is like their first time coming in and seeing their child and they may not know your child's whole medical history. They may not see any trends or anything like that. And if, for some reason, your child may have need a specialist or you know there was something that their doctor was watching or tracking, it may be missed because they're not going to their doctor for their sports physical.

Speaker 1: 4:18

Now, one thing that I do is I start. If I'm going to make a physical for New Face, because he does sports and because he needs annual physical, I'm going to start in May, and I know you say that's crazy. Well, think about it like this school typically ends in may or june and a physical is always good for 12 months. So if I get it done in may, it's going to carry him all the way to the next may and by may there's typically not any sports going on. So that physical is going to carry him throughout the year, right, so that makes sense. So if I don't get it done in May, like this year, we he had it done in June. So you know well this month, so you know. So we have that out the way. So I know he's good until next June.

Speaker 1: 5:11

And while I was there I went ahead and got his regular annual physical and his sports physical done. So we can kind of do. I did kind of like a two for one. When we went he didn't need any shots, so that was a good thing. You know the closer you get, the less appointments they gonna have and the less, like I said, the less flexibility it is going to be. So if you have the capability and the flexibility to, I would recommend you go ahead and make your child's appointment. Some places like I know they'll let you make it. If your child comes and made, they'll make it a yearly thing. They'll be like we'll give you a date for next year and if for some reason it don't work, just give us a call and we can always fix it. So it's better to go ahead and have that scheduled than to be coming up school, get ready to start back and you don't have anything to offer your child, and then they don't get to play sports or they can reject your child in school, depending on certain grades, if your child does not have all of their immunizations up to date.

Speaker 1: 6:28

One thing that I noticed this year on the packet for the physical is they have a piece of paper that you do the regular physical and then, if your child has to go out to see a specialist, there's another paper attached as well. And I'm like, wow, I'm like they're really making it easy for you. So when you go to your doctor's office, just make sure you have your paperwork with you. Sometimes I put, like my son's doctor, I like brought the paperwork, but she's like, oh no, she was like it's that time of year where parents come in. So she's like we typically make a lot of copies of that for you guys, you know, just so you remember. And I'm like, oh okay, like that's cool, that's cool, that's cool.

Speaker 1: 7:35

Another thing that I want to hit on is if your child takes the medication, please, please, please, take the time to go and get that taken care of. New Face has asthma, but he's in high school so he has different rules. There's paperwork for self-carry and then there's paperwork for younger kids. For you to keep that on file, the sooner you the better. When I used to work at a school, I cannot tell you how many times kids needed medication but because their parents lacked on the paperwork, the parents would have to come to the school to give the child the medication or the child just went all day without the medication that they needed, which I don't recommend. That is not safe. That is not cool. So if your child takes medication, please ensure that they have medication it's not going to expire within that school year. Make sure that you have the correct paperwork for it and different things like that. My little list went off. Hold on y'all. Just make sure you have all the paperwork for your school and I always recommend making a copy or taking a picture to have on your phone. That way you have a copy of. Make sure you have a copy of that. That way, if there's any questions about anything, you have that to fall back and reference on. You have that to fall back and reference on For children who take medications or who have a special need or something like that.

Speaker 1: 9:02

Sometimes there's extra paperwork involved. I know with New Face. He has asthma, so not only does he have an inhaler at school, but he also has an asthma action plan that if you do this and it's not working, then we need to do this, and if we do this and this ain't working, this is what you need to do. Make sure you have those type of plans on file because, like I said, working at a school, the last thing we want to do is have to call EMS for your child because your child ain't got the medicine or whatever the case may be. You want to always try to prevent that. One thing that I'm going to start doing, because New Face is in sports and he always has his bag. It's not a bad idea and I'm going to repeat this in another episode as well.

Speaker 1: 9:57

When I start talking about prepping your kid to send them back to school, make sure you make a list of the medications that your child takes, how much they take and how frequently. That way, in the end, put it like in their backpack or on somewhere where it can be accessed in the event that your child is. It should be on file already in the office but say, for instance, the child has a situation, they're on a field trip or something and the child cannot. You can't get that information from the office. Or you got to call somebody to get that information. If it's already on your child's person, then that can get your child in an unfortunate situation. If your child needs help while on a field trip or something, they have that information with them. Now, these is not rules and guidelines. This is just what I do to help get ready for the school year.

Speaker 1: 10:58

A lot of times, students who are kids that play sports, there's a lot of paperwork that needs to be filled out outside the physical and you know that they have to do and sometimes it can be time consuming. Please, please, please, parents, make sure you give yourself time. I know with sports there's a lot of things going on with concussion protocol, with dealing with the heart, cardiovascular and different stuff like that that has to be signed off by the doctor. Parents, please do not wait until the last minute. Some of these places that I have seen that some like I've gone to some of these places and read the signs on the wall sometime.

Speaker 1: 11:43

Paperwork is a seven day turnaround and you can't say, well, look, jimmy finna start football tomorrow. I need you to sign off on this paper. It's a seven day process because you got to think these doctors, they have other patients, they can't just sit here and go. Okay, well, little Jimmy's starting football tomorrow, so let me just go pull his medical record, write his little stuff down, because his parents wanted to wait until the last minute to get his paperwork to us. No, give the doctor's office ample time to get the paperwork done and they'll tell you. Sometimes it's 24 hours, sometimes it's 48 hours. Like I said, I've seen it be seven days at time. But just, you know, be patient with the doctor's office because your child is not the only child that they see. Be patient and be lenient. You know I'm not saying wait two weeks for paperwork, but I'm also saying you can't give it to them and be like I'm going to sit here and wait for you to finish it.

Speaker 1: 12:54

Um, because, like, I need it tomorrow, paperwork filled out. That is not physical related. So make sure that you keep that in mind. You're not taking a bag and it's not a lot. I've seen like twenty five dollars, I've seen 15. I've seen thirty dollars. I mean you are taking time away from a physician or a nurse practitioner, so just, it's just a little compensation for their time. Um, I cannot stress enough keep a copy, keep a copy. I have so many copies. Like I built a binder with all of the paperwork, like all the back to school stuff. Like I've built a binder to keep all of that because I've worked at a school and sometimes paperwork get a little lost. Sometimes I ain't gonna hold you, but as long as you have a copy you can always give it to the school to prevent it from being lost.

Speaker 1: 14:01

So, outside of medical also, make sure you're taking time. If you ask your kid like, can you see that over there or can you see that over there, make sure that they can see, because I know a big problem with kids is they start school and they cannot see. We only think, oh, I need to take them to the doctor to get a physical. Make sure you are making eye appointments if necessary for your child, because sometimes you can get glasses and appointments same day or it may take a week. Because sometimes you can get glasses and appointments same day or it may take a week, but sometimes you have to order glasses and stuff, and it can take a little bit longer. I know it can take up to two weeks to get glasses and you don't want your child to have to start school and they can't see anything because they don't have their little glasses. I know I need my little extra eyes because if I take this off I could see the camera, but can the camera see me? I can't see nothing, like I can't see my playback over here. I can see it, but it's not clear. So make sure you're getting those eye exams in there as well.

Speaker 1: 15:16

Last but not least, dental. Let us make sure that we are making dentist appointments for our children as well, because we want to make sure that they're going back to school with good, healthy teeth, no toothaches or anything like that. You know they may have binged on junk food this summer, so you know you want to make sure you get those pearly whites clean and I know dentist offices can be backed up as well, so you want to make sure you're doing that in due time. I know with New Face's dentist, when he be at dentist they make the next six months already. So it's like that and I'm going to roll that in this next portion into the. You can't make this up.

Speaker 1: 16:07

So in making a dentist appointment, new face comes to me last week and goes mom, I'm getting a tooth. And I'm like, boy you fit, why is your teeth in? This is crazy. And he said I think my wisdom tooth is coming in and I was like, wow, okay. So he was like feel it. And I was like if I put my finger in your mouth and you bite me like it's finna, go up. So I felt it. But he said I can't. And I felt I was like yeah, there's a tooth coming in. He said but I can't eat on this side because it hurts, so so bad. So I said, okay, his dentist is very flexible.

Speaker 1: 16:46

So I called the next day. I said hey. I said you know Lorenzo's having a little bit of pain, can we? Can he come in? She's like, yeah, he can come in tomorrow. Great. So we go in and she's like, yeah, it looks like the tooth kind of came through and it got stuck and since it got stuck, the gums tried to grow back over it, which created an abscess. I said, okay, so she's like he's going to need antibiotics for about seven days. I was like, all right, perfect, we get that taken care of.

Speaker 1: 17:16

She said, however, he going to have to go see an oral surgeon because the two teeth that we didn't even come in for, she said they're pushing on his teeth in the front and they're pushing his teeth forward. And I was like, oh my God, oral surgeon. I said, well, he going to have to go night-night to get all four of these out, because he got one that's coming through, two that's already out, pushing on the two in front of it, and then one that's impacting and it can't come out. So we go to see the oral surgeon y'all and I'm just like I just see dollar signs Because I'm like this is fitting in front of me Because insurance going see dollar signs, because I'm like this is fitting in front of me because insurance gonna pay. They're gonna be like we'll do a little sprinkle, you can do the rest.

Speaker 1: 17:56

So I'm like, all right, so they're taking the images and she said, well, she said I just thought I'll let you know he's gonna have to have five teeth taken out. I'm like five teeth, like where you come up with this extra tooth from, like like I'm thinking you know, like there's the wisdom teeth and then like maybe the one in front of it because the wisdom tooth has pushed it and cracked it. No, she said he has an extra tooth and I was like what do you mean an extra tooth? I was like I've never been told as many years, even going to dinner, never been told that he has an extra tooth. She was like let me pull the image up. She pulls the image up and voila, right, there is the extra tooth. She was like let me pull the image up. She pulls the image up and voila, right, there, it's the extra tooth. And I'm like OMG. And so I'm looking at it and I'm looking.

Speaker 1: 18:40

I was like well, how come I've never known that there was an extra tooth between those two teeth and they're the two teeth in the front? She said you know, the one that they do is like a panoramic or something, and so it's kind of almost similar to a CT. She said you want to know why you never seen it? She said because on this image it looks like that tooth is between two teeth. She said when actually that's not true. She said the tooth is under the tongue and I was like I know you lie, how do you get a tooth under your tongue? So he LJ chimes in and goes oh yeah, he said I feel that bump all the time and I just thought it was just like a gum growth or something. It's a whole ass tooth. So their number they're doing on a chart. And so it's tooth 71. And I said 71, wow, tooth 71. Like that is crazy.

Speaker 1: 19:35

She, yeah, we just take whatever the tooth is and add 50 to it. Girl, what, what are you talking about? So now she's like yeah, so he's going to have to have his four wisdom teeth and his extra tooth pulled out. And then, by the way, did you know that he has a tongue tie? Ma'am, don't tell me nothing else, okay, because this is a full-term baby right here. This boy is 39 weeks and four days. He was a full-term baby. So, like, what are you talking about? A tongue tied, like he was a full-term baby, but why does he have all these preemie problems? Like I don't get it.

Speaker 1: 20:15

So then she was like um, yeah, we're gonna come up with his treatment plan so we can get this scheduled. Um, and you know, we have this process where the day of uh, we draw blood and then we spin it down and then we take the clotting agents out and we put it back in the mouth to help for healing faster. And I'm like, okay, cool. I was like, well, we gonna see, you know how this gonna go. And she's so he's gonna get sedation, he gotta go. He gotta go night night, I said because baby can't take a paper cut, so he gotta go night night.

Speaker 1: 20:49

So we sitting down and we looking at the treatment plan, I'm like I look down, I'm like he gotta get all of them out, like at one time. She's like yeah, so I was like all right, cool. So I'm looking, I was all right, cool, we take care of it. And then I'm like I'm looking at the and I said, is this optional or is this something you have to get? She said no, it's optional. It's just what the doctor recommend. It helps, you know, the it heal faster because it, you know, instead of waiting for the body to create a blood clot, you know we take the blood and create a clot, for it Helps with dry socket, whatever. Whatever.

Speaker 1: 21:26

I said no, I said we're going to take that off. I said cause ain't no school right now, he could be at home or I can monitor him, he can keep his mouth clean. And whatever. I said he don't. If it was during the school year, yeah, I'd be like you know, we'll do it, help him heal fast, you know, so he don't miss school or whatever like that.

Speaker 1: 21:46

He got the summer ahead of him, he not doing nothing anyway. Well, he gonna have to miss a little bit of swim'm not gonna pay 301 for y'all to take some blood and, you know, spin it on down and do like some putty with it and then pack his mouth with it so it'll heal better. Uh, he better take them stitches in that mouth where I shouldn't go somewhere. Three hundred dollars for them to take your blood, and in advance, no, let your, let your body do what it needs to do, like. And then she's like, yeah, he can't, he needs to be eating food by the second day. Um, cause, he's, he needs to work the muscles in his jaw. I was like he's like, yes, I can eat. Give me some chicken nuggets. Hold on a little grasshopper, you, you trying trying to, he trying to go, he trying to go crazy and eat food. He don't understand. He finna be El Miserable. I mm-mm, no, mm-mm, my po' baby, my po' baby, my Poe baby. I don't, no, all right, so we have come to the end of the road here.

Speaker 1: 23:08

I always forget I always forget a song lyric of the week and I always forget one, so I be having to get one on the spot. So, since I had a new face you can't make this up story I'm going to put one of his favorite songs as the song lyric of the week. So our song lyric of the week for this week is going to be Sticky, by Tyler, the creator and his friends. So if you are not, please make sure you are following us on your favorite platform. Make sure that you are hitting the subscribe button so that when a new episode is released, you are getting that new episode. Please make sure you are following us on IG, make sure you're following us on YouTube and when you're following us, please make sure you are engaging with us as well. I say us, like there's more than one person, but us is in me and the gag is pod, so I guess there's two of us. So yeah, so this is the gag is part. I am your girl, charlie Shante. Bye, guys.