Hello everyone!
I am delighted to share the turnout at our Private Practice OIT Meeting during the AAAAI Annual Conference in Atlanta was AMAZING! 
Dr. Wasserman said attendance was “DOUBLE” that of last year. He sends his thanks to everyone who called their allergists, and tweeted the invitation. We are absolutely getting the attention of the current professional organizations. “Who are these people? Where did they come from? Is this that woman with the funny name?” No, it’s not me, though I did invite them. It’s the real “thought leaders” in Allergy and Immunology who are compelled to help us and their colleagues who desire to learn the craft of OIT right now. The best teachers are those who are doing it.
I created Private Practice OIT because I could not make an appointment to get desensitization treatment for my son’s life threatening food allergy. There were, and are, children dying from anaphylactic reactions to food. In 2009, there were 3 allergists offering OIT, but I could only find 1. Regardless if the professed chance of him getting struck by lightening was higher than actually dying from a reaction, I wanted him cured. At least I wanted him safe, included, confident, and able to enjoy life and love. That first kiss would not be his last.
As you can imagine, I am contacted weekly by excited doctors who are eager to get started.
“I just need the protocol!”
That’s NOT how we work.
I have a system for adding doctors to our List. I must verify their identity, speak with them personally, check their credentials, and ascertain how they learned about OIT, who trained them or how they developed their protocols. Only doctors on our List will be mentioned on our pages. If they are in “processing,” we don’t mention their names yet. If they have been removed, which is rare, we don’t mention their names because our corroboration has ended.
Bloggers, medical workers, and entrepreneurs sometimes offer to “join forces” with me. Most times, what they really mean, is that they want to take what I have built, learn all the details of my programs and services, coaching and counseling, and put their own brand on it. And sometimes they try. And sometimes they do. But here’s the thing, there will be many spin-off organizations in the next few years led by parents, venture capitalists, and even doctors. Whatever they do, it will not change my story. It will not change history–what we have created in our groups together. We are the original OIT family. Nothing can change that. We are the OIT Nations.
Any efforts people put out there in the world, will not phase the relationships we’ve built with our OIT Allergists, who have graciously allowed me to organize them and place them on our List. Hopefully, the people who get ramped up by what I’ve started, will tell their own stories so their authentic selves can help change the world for other people. No need to reinvent my wheel. The entire point of OIT is to free you so you can do whatever YOU want. Not fall into the cracks of the OIT sidewalk and stay there. Go invent your food allergy free life. Don’t forget us. We love hearing your success stories and need help guiding the families who are just learning about OIT or still going through treatment.
For those of you writing books, or starting your own nonprofits and consulting companies, please allow me to share what I’ve learned over the years about myself and working with others.
I’ve been blessed to work with some of the finest doctors, medical staff, web designers, developers, tech help, authors, counselors, coaches, lawyers, marketing teams, and administrative assistants. I still need a considerable amount of help because evolving a facebook group into a nonprofit, presenting an obscure medical treatment, though proven “safe and effective,” as a World Movement, is expensive, time consuming, and cannot be achieved alone. We must choose our tribes carefully. And we must learn how to let people go when those relationships are no longer working.
While considering attorneys, one in particular, I could not imagine what changed his eagerness to disinterest. Perhaps I did not move “fast” enough for him? Perhaps he wanted to capitalize on the “doctor” aspect of the project instead of the specialized service they provide. Had I wasted time sulking, I would not have found my current attorney, who is a man so subtly filled with personal devotion that, in his presence, I feel that all things are possible. And our doctors, my “ultimate team of advisers,” who are mostly calm and quietly systematic, they are just doing their jobs. What some people fail to realize is that our allergists had fully functioning practices before OIT was even a consideration. I don’t “lead” them. They lead themselves just fine.
“If you are relaxing your own boundaries and breaking your own rules, then chances are things aren’t going to turn out well. You have to compassionately let them go because it slows you down and keeps you from your real people.” ~Coach of coaches, Susan Hyatt
I hadn’t spoken with Dr. Mansfield in years. So I called him up and reminded him of the day he had a particularly nervous mother in the office, “If paint could peel itself off the wall…” He was surprised I was “still at it” and delighted to hear my son was doing excellent. No reactions since he had begun treatment in 2010. I asked about the old days hoping he could help me figure out what to do about some of our current patient and physician advocacy situations. He told me it was “rather lonely” in the the early days. “It was me and Richard (Wasserman) and James Baker up in Oregon was #3. Our colleagues, you know, they thought… ” When I told him we had almost 100 doctors and over 25,000 members, he simply could not believe it. He ran right over to his computer to look up our site so he could see all that we’ve accomplished, all the doctors we’ve added, all the faces of the children who have been helped. Which gave me an idea I’ll ask you about later.
He recalled, “There was a little girl…” She had experienced so many reactions. “The last one… almost ended her.” He had to do something. “The parents were so gracious and patient with us. We kept trying to find a way to help her. And we got it. We finally got it.” I can’t imagine my silent tears weighed enough to keep disconnecting us, but we kept calling back and continued our talk. One day, I fully expect to hear, “I’m that little girl. I was his first OIT patient. He wanted to save ME! And he did!” In turn, he has saved thousands. In time, it will be millions.
While we were catching up and swapping stories, I kept getting these cryptic messages from people asking, “Why did you take my doctor off the list?” “Why did you delete my comment?” “Why haven’t you responded?” And my favorite, “YOU HAVE NO VISION!” Clearly, I saw the “Scales of Justice” before my eyes. “Divine Law” (on this phone) v. “Opposition” (on that phone.) Which one would you rather answer?
“Traveling back”
to my OIT Roots worked! Who would I rather spend my limited amount of time with? Not only does OIT work, but the core character of the physicians who created and offer OIT continue to awaken possibilities within me to continue what they started. What I literally begged for– treatment for my child.
Food allergies will not “end” us.
This stressful urgency of people involved with our Mission, has been a reoccurring theme for 8 years. No, you cannot please everyone. And we don’t have as much time as we’d like with everyone. We lose track of people. We cannot help everyone. Or answer every message within an appropriate time frame. Especially, when we are trying to create a system that could enable us to answer all messages in a timely manner. It’s a balancing act. And if I had a professional staff, things would be different. But this is where we are right now.
Regardless of intentions, I do not work well with people who steamroll through my landscape. I run at my own pace, cultivate my own decisions, follow my own agenda, and savor my own results while considering the next item on my “to do” list. I’m friendly, but quite the introvert.
“I get recharged NOT with people.” ~S.Hyatt
My suggestion is to find people whose proven work ethic speaks to you. Learn the technical issues of your project as best as you can, but feel free to decorate your presentation to the world in your own style. Otherwise, you’ve simply manufactured someone else’s vision.
For me, it’s a two-sided coin. On one side, I have no model for OIT Development and Promotion. My programs and services were born out of necessity and titled accordingly. On the other side, the people I work with have seen many specialties and societies in medicine formed and dissolved. Who better to help me? After all, I’m only in this to help them help you Make that Appointment! Luckily for me, they are genuinely the best people I will ever know.
IDEA: Let’s send Dr. Mansfield “Thank you” notes, from you and your children, for GIVING so much of himself so we have this opportunity to heal our children. I will ship them to him in a Gift box with a 1st place ribbon.
Please mail your cards/letters to:
Dr. Lyndon Mansfield
c/o OITWorks, Inc.
P.O. Box 394
Milford, OH 45150