Chasing Zebra's

There is a saying that floats around in grad school, especially medical school.

"When you hear hoof beats think horses, not zebra's."

It's a simple concept really, seek out the ordinary not the extraordinary, when looking for answers. I suppose in the medical world it reigns in over-zealous, young doctors who are eager to diagnose every sniffle as malaria or every headache as a brain tumor. It makes sense in a horse filled world. If you live in one.

It's why the first doctor I wrote about wanted to dive right into scratch testing and other fundamental allergy type protocol. He's treating a horse.

It's also why I sought out a new doctor.

And found one. He's an educator, a leader and a practitioner. He heads up the regional allergy and asthma research group here. He has run hundreds of clinical trials. His resume is awesome. His knowledge seems omniscient. And when we went in for our appointment, he didn't disappoint. After taking a thorough history and answering every last question we had, going so far as to take the papers I had brought with me with all of my Dr. Google research out of my hands and reading it himself, he gave us his answer.

He told us, "I have never seen a case like this before or even read about one. I will not do anything until I have researched it myself. I am writing to every colleague I have and every publication out there to present this case. I want more information and answers before we do anything to your son." He said that even though he hasn't seen it, he knows someone else has and he wants to find that someone else.

He also told me to call my doctor and to get on Calcium supplements right away. (I've eliminated nuts, dairy, wheat and eggs from my diet because of the results of tests done on Cason in the hospital ) He treats the whole patient and right now, because I am still nursing, I am part of Cason.

No arrogance, no dismissing my concerns, no trying to fit Cason into a round hole with his right angle corners. No pretending to know what to do just because he is a doctor. He has more questions and he wants to find the answers.

So now we wait. And we try to catch this zebra of mine.