To think and 8 year old would be a bug under a microscope, the one with dozens of doctors at a time asking the same questions over and over again. Long pauses of “oooo’s……..and….”aaaaaaa’s” and the famous “I see…..” I was that 8 year old girl the one with the doctors visits consist of not one doctor but multiple trying to find out what’s wrong with me and why it happened. The life I had was and still is hard. The isolated little girl that your parents said you couldn’t play with because they didn’t want you to get what she has. It was a half a year that I would never forget, the one day I woke up and found dots red dots on my arm I thought nothing of it and went to school. When I came home my mom asked me what they were and with out thinking anything of it I told her “they were there when I woke up.”
Right away my mom took me to her friend’s house who is a nurse. That was the strangest half an hour of my life. She looked, cleaned, and asked questions what and where I got them from. The questions continued until they came to there senses and called the doctor. As we got home my mom went right to the phone curled up in a ball in the corner there I was ease dropping on my mothers conversation. The room was silent and I could here the ring until someone answered. Slowly my mom began to use her worried voice the one that hesitates with every word and pauses so that the person on the other end won’t forget a single breath of my mother’s words. That night I felt my mom sit on the edge of my bed stroking my hair as if I wouldn’t wake up in the morning. I didn’t do anything but just lie there for that period of time as she comforted me. The next morning I did wake up and I was relived that I did. With a hop skip and a jump out of bed I ran to the kitchen poured my self some cereal and started my morning routine. Half way done my mom appeared in the door way and gave a little laugh and said “your sure happy to go to school today”
“yes, yes I am today there is a guest speaker coming today.”
When I got to school nothing was much different and slowly everyday my dot would grow but other wise I didn’t notice them. Weeks then a month had passed and my dots had slowly multiplied and started to pop up every where. This was a particularly odd morning. My mom did not wake me up looking at the clock I got my self out of bed ran quickly and got to the kitchen. Right as I got everything out for breakfast my mom came in and announced that “I was not going to school today and to go back to bed and she will wake me up later.” Walking slowly back to my room thoughts ran through my head “am I sick I feel fine….. Did I do something wrong” Gently crawling back into my fresh morning warmth covers I was woken by the shake of my mom’s voice as she told me to wake up. At that moment I knew that the reason I wasn’t going to school was because I had to go to the doctors. The one place in the whole world that I dreaded most .When we arrived I was the only kid there swinging my feet back and forth as my mom filled out paper work. The nurse finally came out to the waiting room and called my name “Gabrielle?”
She led us to the room around the corner and to the left. Walking into the room filled with tacky wallpaper and the instruments the poke you with. This was far from the candy shop you beg your parents to bring you to. Usually the doctor makes you wait ten or fifteen minutes but this time he came right away. Even my mom was shocked by this. The first minutes were for asking questions and for using the “mean machines” as I call them to this day. When you are at the doctors no matter how old you are the questions are always addressed to the other adult in the room never to you. They always say ‘has Gabrielle been experiencing pain” or something like that.
Its like your not even there or you just cant speak. Most times your parents don’t even know what you are feeling because you don’t tell them. When the questions were over the pediatrician asked me to step out in the hall way so he could talk to my mom alone. After I got the signal that it was okay I slowly walked to the door and closed it almost all the way so I could still hear what they were saying. The doctor told my mother that what ever I had he couldn’t diagnose it here at this practice the conversation went on as he used words that I didn’t understand and quite frankly I didn’t want to understand. That is how I came to meet doctor Antaya. The man who took some getting used to but over time I grew very fond of. Weeks went by and dots grew as I did. The day came as me and my mom took the journey to new haven and going to Yale University medical center. We waited and waited crying babies came and left, old people smell with a mix of babies filled the room. I sat with my head held high just hoping this was the only room I would see in the whole building. Finally the nurse came and I was just happy to get up but that was the only thing that excited me. On the march to the room at the end of that hall with the window opened just a smidge to make sure it doesn’t get to hot. The nurse put a robe on my bed and left. The only thing I had from that woman was the call of my name that led me from where I most wanted to be right now. Doctors came looked took pictures of my arms, legs, back, and stomach, asked questions and left. The process happened so much I stopped counting. As the last doctor left I waited for the door to open shake the doctors hand, answer 2 or 3 questions and them be on there way. This time the door didn’t open till a half and hour later. Until the man we made this long journey for walked into the still room. The tall man with the goofy looking tie closed the door to the rest of the world and unlike the others he took a seat. Doctor Antaya will be the only man I will ever know that will ask me questions. He has been the first to explain what his theory is to me, and my mother. The appointment lasted a total of 2 hours of my life that will never leave me. Visits went by and each time many doctors would come in and look at me but each time I know that I was going to walk out of there knowledge about myself that I never knew. This visit was the one I paid most attention to. It was the day that I was going to find out what made my skin do what it did. My condition is called PLEVA it’s a reaction to food just like people have with peanuts but my reaction was to wheat the main ingredient to everything. When I walked out of the office that day I became a gluten free girl. But the cure to make the dots go way besides not eating wheat was sun this was the only time a doctor will tell you that you need sun. Emails went out to parents and they were informed that I was okay and what I had and that it wasn’t contagious. Everything started to get back to normal but it was the middle of winter and how was a going to get sun? Winter break was coming up and my mom booked the first flight to Florida where we will spend the whole time at the beach. By the time I came back I got a tan and my skin really stared to get cleared up. When we arrived back the school year soon slowly passed by. The next year I attended another Elementary School by then my dots had cleared up. Even though I was gluten free then I am not anymore because I out grew my allergy. I am still hoping it never comes back but if it does ill be ready.