Swirlies, and Other Nerd Phenomenon

Here it is!  Luke's big appointment!  I'm sorry to just now be blogging about this when the appointment was Friday.  It's been pretty busy around here (when is it not?).  Trust me, however, this is worth the wait.  And this will be my point of view, so it may seem that Mark didn't say much or play an active role here... but he did.  This, like I said, is just my account.

We were blessed to see Dr. Ron Clements.  Have you heard of him?  You will.  He's very good at what he does.  It's encouraging to see someone doing what they so obviously were meant to be doing.  He is a young man, full of joy, and shows energy and interest in the child he is working with.  Mark and I liked him immediately.

We were ushered into his office and asked to sit on the cushy furniture.  Luke was still for just a second.  He picks up on the energy in a room and runs with it.  If it's a sad place, he will literally crawl up into a ball and cry.  If it's a happy place, he will dance and be silly.  In Dr. Clements' office, he sat down, stood up, sat down, stood back up and then walked over to Dr. Clements and gave him a hug.  Dr. Clements smiled, hugged him back, and said, "Yeah!  I like you, Luke.  Thanks so much for the hug!"  Luke responded with, "You're welcome.  I like all three of your paintings."  I realized how random this was, but Dr. Clements didn't miss a beat.  He looked around his office as if he was also a newcomer here and said, "There are in fact three paintings.  Yes.  They're kinda nice."  I thought, "Oh my word.  There's two of them!  Dr. Clements is a Luke!"  :)

Dr. C smiled the entire visit.  It wasn't a creepy smile.  It wasn't a fake smile.  It was part of the man.  He truly is full of joy.  He began the "official" visit with, "Luke, I see you've brought some interesting people with you today.  Do you know them or did they just follow you in?"

Luke said, "Yes, [giggle] that's my mom and that's my dad."  (for the rest of the visit, we were "mom" and "dad" to Dr. C, even though we'd already shaken hands and offered first names all around...he introduced himself as Ron.)  Dr. C continued to address only Luke for the next little while.  He would say, "Luke, I'd like to ask you some questions.  Is that okay?  And is it okay if Mom and Dad jump in with anything at anytime?"

Luke had yet to sit back down and was instead inspecting everything in the office [I told him to sit down but "Ron" said, "He's okay, Mom.  Or...whatever your rules are.  But he's fine"].  He answered every question clearly...but rarely was he still while he did it.  It's no wonder every doctor always goes straight to ADD...except Dr. C.  He seemed instinctively to recognize an inquisitive soul and allowed Luke to roam and touch and look and learn to his heart's content.  Dr. C himself was quite the multi-tasker.  He sat on an exercise ball at a small desk with a laptop (that he was actively using) and held a pen and several papers (we realized in time that these were all the different reports from all the doctors we'd visited thus far).  Here's the cool part.  I never once felt he wasn't paying attention to all three of us.  In fact, quite the opposite.  I was distinctly aware of the fact that he was taking in far more than our words.  Our body language, facial expressions, hand gestures, and silent looks did not escape his keen eye.

At one point, I had the chance to let my eyes wander along his "victory" wall...that place where doctors display their diploma and medical license.  I didn't have the chance however to read every single degree.  Too many.  They were also, I noticed, not ostentatiously framed.  Just hung mater-of-factly as a part of the office décor.  I thought maybe he hung them to prove that, as young as he is, he really does have the credentials to do what he's doing.  And, perhaps I should qualify "young".  Because I get older, "younger" gets older too.  He was probably mid-forties.  I guess with all the hype we'd heard about him, I just assumed he was an older man who had been doing this for ages and ages. 

Good grief, I'm sorry...this blog is turning into a saga.  I'll get to the fun part and be done.

Luke's super smart.  That's it in a nutshell.  Yes, we knew that.  But, now we know it from a super-credentialed doctor.  So there.  Ha.  But how does that help us?  Well, that's kind of what Dr. C asked us.  He finally said, "What brought you to me?  Why are we here?"  We explained that our son (who was now riding the exercise bike in the corner, pressing buttons, laughing to himself, and gaining Dr. C's full approval and affection) was a sad little boy.  It was an ironic moment.  I started to reiterate his sadness but Dr. C said, "I get it.  Depression.  Anxiety."  I thought, "But he's not acting that way right now...so are you just going to take our word for it?"

So I asked him, "He's not acting that way right now so are you just taking our word for it?" (I pretty much say what I think most of the time)  Dr. C smiled (and by the way, he has a thousand smiles.  They all communicate something... "I know", "that's funny", "you're cute", "I like you", "this is enjoyable", "everything's going to be fine", "I know you didn't mean that but I totally understand what you meant"........).  He said, "I get it."  And I knew that he did.

Out of nowhere, Dr. C asked, "So which side is his swirly on?"  Excuse me?  His....swirly??  It took me a second but I looked at Luke and saw that, as normal, his hair was sticking straight up everywhere.  I'm quite used to this.  And I'm used to other people's comments about it.  But I was not expecting this renowned doctor to ask about it...and say "swirly".  I said, "Uh, swirly, um...on his, let's see, his left...wait, his....I'm sorry.  I don't know."  I got Luke off the bike and examined him.  I felt that, as his mother, I should know this!  Who doesn't know where their son's swirly is?!  Wait.  Who DOES?  So, I shoved Luke to Dr. C and said, "Here.  You find it."

He said, "Okay," and dove into Luke's hair with enthusiasm.  It was strangely comical.  It also was so unlike anything I'd been expecting that I found myself holding back hysterical laughter.  Well, he looked.  And then he looked some more.  Then, I had to make Luke stand still longer because he looked again!  What was this about?!

He let go of Luke, sat down on his bouncy-ball and began typing, writing, looking at all of us at the same time.  And smiling.  I said, "What does this mean?"

He stopped.  I mean, if you thought you would be disturbed by all of his activity, I assure you that his stillness was more disturbing.  He rubbed his face and looked around his office as if searching for an answer.  I thought, "Great.  Our son has...swirly-head?"  (That "Simpson's episode ran through my head where Homer goes to the doctor and doctor examines his head and says, "I'm sorry, Homer, but you have....Homer Simpson Head" and Homer yells, "WHY ME?!")

I said, "You can tell us.  What?  WHAT?"

He realized he was keeping us on the edge of our seat...I think he might've forgotten for a second that we were still in the room.  He said, "No, no, no, it's....it's....well, back a long time ago before MRI machines and other instruments giving us accuracy, we used to look at a person's swirly to see if they were truly left-brained or right-brained.  I was interested because Luke's left handed but he took a bite of that cracker with his right hand."  !!!  We're here for Luke's depression, and the guy's playing around with hair and old philosophy?

He continued.  "It's extremely rare.  I mean, we read about it and know it's possible but it almost never happens and I've never seen it.  Luke has two swirlies.  One on each side."  (This confirms what I've always known about it being impossible to tame his hair)

Mark said, "Oh, cool.  So, he's ambidextrous?" 

Dr. C said, "That's possible.  But what it really means is that Luke is able to think equally with his left and right brain.  Simultaneously and also with equal strength.  It's...it's just so rare.  Only two or three people ever...this is just so rare."  And it confirmed why, on Luke's IQ test, he was a 145 across the board.  (at least.  remember, he didn't finish the test)

We got Luke a very mild anti-depressant and are on day 3 with it (no side-affects!).  But I must say that Dr. C's examination of Luke's head and his revelation of Luke's odd ability to think with his full brain was the highlight of the visit.  For Dr. C too.  He shook our hands and said, "Mom, keep a Luke journal.  He's going to amaze you.  And remember me when he's famous!"  And he smiled.

And we smiled too.  And I don't think we've stopped smiling since.  :)