June 21, 2001 - Thursday
Harry had his first appointment this afternoon with a new doctor whose office is just a few minutes from our house. The room where Harry had his appointment had two large dinosaurs - a brontosaurus and the one with the big flange around his neck whose name I'll likely relearn as Harry gets a little older - painted on the wall and Harry thought that was pretty neat. And, the doctor is a young man, I'm guessing perhaps even younger than I am, and seemed quite personable and knowledgeable in the short visit we had. But, that visit was somewhat more unfocused than would have been ideal for a first meeting, because Harry became quite distressed whenever the nurse or doctor came in the room.

I have two theories about this. First, there was a toy in the waiting area that Harry thought was pretty special. It was a dual spiral ramp that had a place for two matchbox cars on top and a lever to push that released the cars down the ramp and out. Harry did not mind at all that there was just one car and no possibility for a race down the ramps and was not at all happy to be picked up and brought to a little room with a nurse. However, while he kept calling out "toy," I really don't think that was Harry's main probably. I think the sight of more people in white jackets aiming to poke and prod at him brought back memories of our three hour stint at the hospital two weeks ago. It's not that any one thing at the hospital was all that traumatic for Harry, but it was three hours and maybe that's trauma enough for a little boy.


Comments, opinions?