Bone of Contention

On the other hand, how could someone so seemingly happy and well-adjusted be making the whole thing up or imagining it? And yet there were many mornings when he would get up saying, "I feel horrible. My head and my throat really hurt."

And I would have nothing to offer him except some children's ibuprofen and the promise that if he felt during the school day that he absolutely could not sit in class anymore he could go to the office and I would come and pick him up. He did this only once.

Diagnosis: Lymph Nodes?

And then we finally got a break: We were given the name of a medical doctor who also uses some alternative therapies, including acupuncture.

This recommendation, from the fifth otolaryngologist we consulted, was very much in the form of a last resort. He had nothing to suggest in the area of conventional medicine. These things were sometimes mysterious, he said, and we would probably never know what had caused Gideon's symptoms. But perhaps an acupuncturist could do something about the pain.

And so finally Gideon and I went to see Marie Steinmetz in Alexandria, and things began to happen. Within two months of our initial -- indeed, our only -- visit to her, the cause of Gideon's symptoms had been diagnosed and he was well on the road to recovery.

So what was wrong with him? It was very simple: He had enlarged lymph nodes in his neck and behind one ear and a buildup of lymphatic fluid. The pain apparently was being caused by the pressure of this fluid on nerves in his neck.

Once we got hold of that idea, things began to click into place. For instance, I had noticed, without realizing its significance, that Gideon's face looked "heavy" around his jaw; indeed, his jaw line and chin line had disappeared. This puffiness was caused by fluid. I had also noticed a hard, painful knot behind his right ear and been told it was a lymph node.

Steinmetz pursued several options in Gideon's treatment before settling on the lymphatic idea: a thyroid ultrasound, an acupuncture treatment and two visits to an osteopath. None of these resulted in any answers or improvement, but she was undeterred.

We then had an MRI done of Gideon's neck to be sure that we weren't missing anything. "God, please show us the truth," I prayed during the 45 minutes that this procedure took. And indeed the results of this test supplied the clue we needed: The radiologist included "swollen lymph nodes" in his report.

I was frankly astounded at Steinmetz's level of involvement. She called and discussed the results with the radiologist. She called and e-mailed me several times. She talked with the osteopath. She called a pediatric oncologist and had him evaluate the MRI films to be sure that the swollen nodes weren't malignant. She left nothing to chance.

Drain It

And once she was sure that Gideon's problem was lymphatic, she wasted no time in referring us to a physical therapist, Pamela Wood of Hand-n-Hand Therapy in Arlington, who specializes in something called "lymphatic drainage therapy."

It sounded pretty strange to me, but at this point I was willing to try just about anything, especially if Steinmetz recommended it.

The first session, which took place on April 7, was well-nigh conclusive. Wood, an ebullient woman who won Gideon's heart by offering him jelly beans, said right away that she had seen a number of lymphatic cases with pain in the front of the neck. Her treatment, which consists of very gentle massage at various points of the lymph system, brought about immediate and dramatic results. Gideon said that same evening that his headache was quite a bit better. The puffiness in his face went away, and the knot behind his ear softened. And each succeeding treatment produced more positive results.

Wood, who has been a licensed physical therapist for 25 years and has also studied intensively with Bruno Chikly, the founder of a school of lymphatic therapy, was willing to invest a great deal of effort not only in the treatments themselves but also in distracting Gideon enough from his areas of sensitivity so that she could work on them. Mr. Potato Head made an appearance, as did a take-apart model of the skull. Wood was the first health professional we saw who actually got Gideon to talk to her.