Already ten minutes late for her first appointment, Claire phoned from her car that she’d be in the office in five minutes. Fifteen minutes later, she arrived flustered and embarrassed, and “Oh, my gosh, I left all the forms on my kitchen table, but I did fill them out,” and “My insurance card? I’m sure I had it, I can call my husband, he has one, I think,” and “Could you please put money in the meter for me, I just realized I forgot and I have s-o-o-o many tickets…”
Claire wanted to see me about fatigue, but she also wanted to mention her concern about a possible yeast infection, and then there were her hormones, and could she see the nutritionist too on this visit? She jiggled her knee constantly as she spoke, answered my questions mid-sentence, and changed the subject frequently.
I asked her — slowly, carefully — if she’d ever been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD). “Funny that you should mention ADD,” she replied.
“My best friend, Sarah, she makes jewelry, sells it at art fairs, she’s got a website with pictures. What did you ask me again?” Sarah, I learned, thought Claire had ADD, but no, Claire had never been tested for it, and yes, she’d finished college, “so my ADD can’t be that bad, though it did take me eight years to get my degree.”
I asked if she’d take an ADD test with me. We took this one. “Well,” she laughed, “That’s the first time I’ve ever gotten a 100 on any test.”
Your WholeHealth Chicago practitioners can discuss both conventional and natural treatment options for ADD with a combination of observing the patient and asking some pertinent questions.
