In The Doctor's Office.

Sitting in the waiting room on the red plastic couch, I wait for my doctor who is a specialist with kids with disabilities. I am nervous. Every time I come it feels like I’m being pressured to find out what else is wrong with me. After all, all I want to do is to play with my friend, not come to the doctor’s office and talk about my disabilities. Across the room is a girl with a mental disability. I watch as her mom constantly wipes the drool away from her face. I think to myself, man I’m glad I’m not that bad. But then I realize that I have a real bad drooling problem as well. The doctor is ready for me. My dad picks me up and puts me on his hips. We go into the cold doctor’s office that has a bed, a walker, and some toys laying on the floor. The doctor comes in. It sounds like he’s wearing spurs, but it’s only the sound of his braces as he’s walking down the hall. He has two aluminum crutches that he walks with. He comes up to me and says, “Hello Daniel,” grabbing my little hands with both his. He asked me to hold out my two hands to grab his hand to test my strength. My left hand is giving a somewhat firm grip. I could barely grip my right hand. He slaps me on the knee and assures me I’m doing fine. “Your strength is really improving.”

Turning to my mom and dad, “Are there any questions or concerns about Daniel and how he is improving?” A notebook appears out of my mom’s purse. “Here, look at this” she said, “I’ve written down everything Daniel’s done for the past few months in this book.” The doctor got a wide-eyed look at the notebook that was filled with notes like, “Daniel stood last Tuesday for 5 seconds.” It went on and on, page after page. Looking up at my mom, he said, “In all of my years of being in this profession, I have never seen anybody make detailed notes of their child’s improvement as you have. I believe that every little achievement that Daniel makes is one little step towards making him whole again. Well Mrs. and Mr. Harris, this is without a doubt real progress, but you’ve got to understand that Daniel more than likely will never be able to do things like children his age do. Daniel will always have difficulty throughout his life. Cerebral palsy can be improved, but it can never be eradicated.”