Happy Halloween!!

Michael turned 11 today!

Charlie and I pulled him out of school early to take him to an appointment made 3 weeks ago with an endocrinologist with the Cook's Children's Network. We have been concerned that Michael is small, so we wanted to make sure once and for all if he was growing at the correct rate, or not.

When we first met Dr. Thornton, he asked why we came to him. He was concerned that even if he told us Michael was growing right on schedule, we would want him to make Michael bigger anyway. Apparently, there are parents out there who do this... that is just insane! So, we told him we just wanted to know one way or the other. If he is growing at the right rate, then we are done. If he's not... what do we do?

Now keep in mind, Michael's pediatrician did not refer us to the endocrinologist, Michael's occupational therapist suggested we might want to check into it. Dr. Thornton said that if we had waited too much longer, Michael would be into puberty and it would be too late to help him, if he needed help.

After checking Michael out, Dr. Thornton sent us to have an x-ray of Michael's left hand. After the x-ray, we went back so he could read the x-ray and tell us if there was reason for concern or not. There is reason for concern. Some of the bones in Michael's hand are between 6 & 7 years old, and some are about 8 years old. None of them are close to 11 years old.

We were then sent to a lab to have blood drawn. Three tubes of blood. Michael was very brave during the whole process. The tests they are going to run will tell the doctor where Michael is deficient so he knows how to treat him. We also discovered during our conversation with the doctor over Michael's medical records, that a medication his pediatrician prescribed for him, that he took for over 3 years, could have stunted his growth. Oh joy.

We will have the results from the blood tests in about 3 weeks.