Tuesday, February 05, 2008

foot dragging

Two hours from now, we leave for New York. Tomorrow morning, we will see an allergist at the clinic run by Big Famous Innovative Pediatric Allergist Guy, known henceforth as Whatsisname. I booked the appointment with Whatsisname back in June, after the Grandpere pulled strings to get us in.

Standing outside the classroom today with the Eldest, in the midst of coat, boot and lunchbag gathering, a friendly parent tapped me on the shoulder and asked. Apparently, the Eldest had told the parent's son that we were going on a trip. I explained why, and suddenly, nearly burst into tears. Are you okay? asked the parent, and patted me gently. Is there something I can do? Some way I can help?

Oh, thanks, I lied. but I'm fine. I'm just realizing now that I was hoping that Whatsisname would have a magic wand to wave over the boys...and of course, he won't.

Oh, silly me, whining in the face of this good fortune, afraid of what it will bring. Okay, let's try and turn this blog post right around: how wonderful to be able to go and see this specialist, and to work with the fruits of his wisdom. How awful it will be to hear him say that he cannot cure, or even materially correct the boys' allergies.

Hope is a terrible thing, sometimes, and I hadn't realized that I was daring to let myself feel it.

6 comments:

Leora said...

Best of luck with Whatsisname. Looking forward to hearing how it went upon your return.

I know an adult locally who has been treated by one of our local chiropracter for his severe allergies. He says it's slow, but he sees progress. The technique is called NAET.

I was inquiring because my nephew has severe allergies.

Rixblix said...

Those thoughts and feelings just jump up and grab ya' don't they? I hope the appointment goes well.

Anonymous said...

let us know how it went. Sending postitive thoguhts and vibes.

Anonymous said...

Tricky, that hope business. I hope the trip was productive even without a magic wand. (And selfishly, I wish the timing coincided with my trip to NY next weekend...but that's a different kettle of fish.)

dykewife said...

much luck

i don't hope much either. it's much easier that way.

ZM said...

Oh, Leora, we remember NAET well. Generously funded by the M and FIL, we did it for months before the Eldest was finally 'cleared' of his dairy allergy. Days later, he had an anaphylactic reaction to trace amounts of dairy. We never did another NAET session after that.

thanks for the hope, everyone. It was actually a good visit, though the Man and I bickered all the way home about what, exactly, the doc had meant when she said X versus Y. And the implications thereof, yadda, yadda - by the time we reached Connecticut, we'd managed at least to define the problem. By Massachusett's border, we'd agreed to disagre.

All in all, not too shabby. We did agree on one thing: we're going back for a followup in a year. They come by their fame honestly, the Whatsisnames do.