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Why I only blog when there’s a medical update (UPDATED!)

I haven't been blogging much in recent months because everything has been great with Eddie, and I make the assumption no one wants to hear about the boring, mundaneness that is a 3-year-old who is healthy, doing well in preschool, and making friends. Not only is it boring, but I hate it to seem like I'm bragging about how well he is doing. So I don't blog.

But, lucky for you, I do have a medical update!

Yesterday we met with a new endocrinologist. If you remember, we met with one guy about six months ago to discuss Eddie's poor growth. The guy basically blew us off, saying it was because he had a stuffy nose, and sent us on our way. The GI didn't think that was acceptable, so he recommended another guy. However, THAT guy doesn't see new patients, so we instead saw one of his colleagues.

The appointment was at Emory-Children's Center (I don't know what's up with that dash in their official name), and first we met with someone who identified herself as a medical student. (I'm guessing she's an intern? Any reader who is more familiar with the doctor education process is welcome to chime on in that one. We'll call her Almost Doctor.) She took the full history and exam and gave us some thoughts. She also, in typical student fashion, had spent some time researching the 5p- to understand what known endocrine issues were seen with the deletion.

Talking with the student was a lot of fun - she was very interested in everything. A few highlights:

Almost Doctor: "Wow, he does have a lot of doctors!" after I mentioned three or four of them.

Almost Doctor: "Does he get sick a lot?"
Me: "No. He rarely gets sick. He's very healthy... he's just a bit difficult."
Almost Doctor: "Yes, he is."

After that, the Actual Doctor came in and reviewed everything we told Almost Doctor. Actual Doctor talked to us about what it could be, and the likelihood that the size is all due to the deletion. She completely understood and agreed with the desire of us and the other doctors to make sure that there was no other treatable cause, though.

As of yesterday, based on their measurements, Eddie is in the third percentile for weight (29 pounds or so) and less than first percentile for height (35.9 inches). However, Almost Doctor had found a growth chart for kids with 5p-, and on that chart Eddie was between the fifth and 50th percentiles, so normal when compared to kids who have typical cri du chat (that is, a much larger deletion than what he has.)

There are three treatable causes of the small stature that they want to look in to: hyperactive thyroid, growth hormone deficiency, or celiac disease. All three of these have been mentioned by other doctors in the past, so it's nice that he'll be worked up for all three. To check for these things, they ordered a bunch of lab work and an x-ray of Eddie's hand and wrist to check his bone age. With the bone age test they can also give a pretty good guess as to what his adult height will be.

Conveniently enough Emory-Children's Center is next door to one of the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta hospitals, so we got to go straight over there (we've now visited three of three of the primary CHOA locations!) to have the labs and x-ray done. While there, we saw rich donator types who tried to talk up Eddie. That's the first time we've seen those - maybe they prefer this location to the others.

The results of all the tests will be back in two weeks. If things point at hyperthyroidism or celiac, we'll figure out a treatment plan. If the screening tests for growth hormone deficiency come back positive, they'll bring Eddie in for another test where they give him growth hormone and see if levels improve with that. With kids younger than 4, it's not uncommon for the initial screening test to come back low even if there is no diffiency, hense the follow-up test.

I have an idea for another blog sooner rather than later, so perhaps you'll hear from me again before the results come in. Otherwise, I

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UPDATE: And that's where I left off. Really. This is what happens when you try to multitask by blogging while observing focus groups at 9:00 at night after already working for 12 hours. I have no idea where I was going with that last sentence. It's sort of like chose your own adventure. Have fun with it. Imagine what I was otherwise planning. I'm sure it was glamorous, whatever it was.

Conversation

Eddie: When I grow up, can I be in space?

Me: If you become an astronaut.

Eddie: Can I become an astronaut?

Me: You can become whatever you want to be.

Eddie: I want to be a superhero.

Me: What do you like about superheroes?

Eddie: That their capes blow.

Fest Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, Mark and Eddie went to Mark's Family Fest in Deleware. I was kept apprised of the trip via texted photos. Here they are.