My eldest son (13) has been fainting quite often recently and "fitting" along with it. He was put through a series of tests a couple of weeks ago at the emergency room, including a CAT scan, but they failed to show any signs of epilepsy - he's booked in for an EEG in a month. Yesterday was the first day in a week we sent him to school, but at recess he fainted again and the school reckons he was "fitting". The ambulance was called and his mother accompanied him to the hospital. After 5 hours of waiting around with no attention, he was discharged with a "He'll grow out of it". That's all well and good, but if the school sends him home or to hospital every time it happens (quite frequently lately - why?), how much education is he going to receive while we're waiting for him to "grow out of it"? The home liaison (truancy) officer has already been sniffing around, but fortunately the school told her about the fact that while we've been trying hard to make sure he's at school, they've been the ones sending him home (not just for fainting - he dinged his knee in earlier this term and also was sent home with impetigo, which took a week to recover from).
What's to laugh at? Well yesterday, while waiting for the ambulance, my son's friends were allowed to miss class and wait with him. Well, kids being kids, my son was surprised to find he had about 650 close friends!