I need to update my blog design as Easter has come and gone. Perhaps I'll have a moment to work on that this weekend.
A few notes from the recent happenings around here:
***Living and Dying by Baseball.... that's going to be my memories of these years with Stephen. Playing on two teams is really one too many!! Note to self... don't do that again next year!! Quite literally this week there is a baseball game every single night and in some cases, a practice on Team B after a baseball game for Team A! NUTSO!! Yep.. that's us. Needless to say, keeping up with the homework or cooked meals or anything normal is somewhat scattered at the moment. I'm trying to remember to just enjoy this though because it really won't last that long in the whole scheme of life. I've come to really like sunflower seeds at baseball games though! Seems to be my staple.
***Sick Doggy.... we have a sick puppy. Sugar, our 6 year old Golden, isn't feeling too well. Not really sure what it is at the moment. Thinking good thoughts that it is something treatable but the vet hasn't figured it out quite yet.
*** Stephen's growth - we're still on the trail of making sure we're getting Stephen any necessary treatments to help his growth. He's currently 4' 8 and 79 pounds and just about to turn 13!
Last week we went for a second opinion at UT Medical here in Houston with a pediatric endocrinologist. I have to say, I think it's really interesting (and a little scary) that two doctors can look at the same information and have two totally different ideas of problems and treatments. UT took the same information that Tx Children's had and pretty much said they feel the data indicated he should probably have been on growth hormone treatment a year ago. Texas Children's said he wasn't a candidate. Geez..... very frustrating indeed.
UT took more blood last week and ran some more tests. Everything was normal (thyroid, liver, etc.) except for his IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor) hormone level which is a mirror hormone for growth hormone (HGH). If it's low, odds are strong the HGH levels are going to be low causing deficient growth. Well, Stephen's was 106 a year ago and is 120 now. It should be somewhere north of 267 all the way up to 359 I'm told. Clearly... he's deficient. What should have happened 18 months ago when the test was first run at Tx Childrens and what will now happen in early May is a Growth Hormone Stimulation Test will be performed on Stephen. This is a 4 hour IV based test where they inject some drugs to try to stimulate and measure his production of HGH over a period of time. If that test shows he's deficient, which we fully expect it probably will, the doctor will recommend he start a growth hormone therapy. This is a daily injectable therapy and will help him grow!! YAY!!! So.. our prayers are that the next test goes well and clearly shows that he either definitely needs the treatment or that he definitely does not need the treatment. We need it to be pretty cut and dry in order to hopefully have it covered by insurance if he does need it. We do not want a borderline situation. It's a really expensive therapy costing between $40,000 - 70,000 a year, so odds of us being able to do it without insurance is pretty slim.
That's it for today! sleep time...
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