Second week, second post

It has been two weeks since we started our boy on Genotropin. I still don't like the actual giving of the shots. I doubt that ever really gets better. We rotate the butt, thigh and stomach. I usually give the shot and my wife holds him. We have found that the stomach seems to be the best. I would have thought that it would be the worst. I guess that shows what I know. If I knew anything about what to expect I wouldn't be writing it all down. We have given two weeks of shots and the boy isn't a giant. I don't expect to see instant results. Hey I'd take them, but it won't happen. We had a 4 year old boy over as part of our Thanksgiving celebration. An 18 month old also came. Our 4 year old boy was much closer in size to the year and a half year old. It was a great example of why we are giving him the shots. I'm a rudderless ship, though. I really don't know what to expect and I'm nervous. I hope the shots are not something that we/he will have to do for the rest of days. That is intimidating to think about. We haven't seen any real side effects. The boy has had diarrhea for the past week. I attribute that to a flu like bug from his preschool. He hasn't had any other reactions. That is good, I think. I don't feel sad when I see my boy. I did feel "sorry" for him on Thanksgiving. He was so much smaller than the kid his age. He was so much smaller. Not just in stature but his development is way behind too. Our boy still looks like a baby. It is a tough time. Feeling sorry for my boy isn't what I want. He is well adjusted, though. He is spoiled, and you know what he always will be. I can't apologize for that. I just was surprised by how I felt when I saw him interacting with a kid his age. Well, not much to report for week 2. I will hang my close on this line. Hey Mom, (Love ya).

First post of, hopefully, a successful ride.

My son is 4 years old. He is the size (height) of a 2 and a half year old. He is an awesome boy and I love him with my entire being. We were worried about his growth and took him to see the Dr. I'm 6'4'' and about 200 pounds. My wife is normal size. I say 5'6'' she says 5'7''. We knew things with our boy were different from the start. He was born with pulmonary hypertension and he spent the first two weeks of his life in ICU. He had to be transported from our home to LA. During the transport he coded twice. His tube kept clogging with mucous. They had to pull the tube on the elevators up to the ICU. When the doors opened there just happened to be an ENT Dr. on the floor. They were able to reintubate him. The staff was phenomenal at LA Children's hospital and our boy came home one month to the day he was born. We had to see a variety of Dr's because of his rough start. The trips to the Dr. became fewer and the last Dr. we cleared was the neurologist. He said that my boys brain did have damage but it didn't seem like it would cause cerebral palsy or anything like that. That was about 18 months after his birth. The boy seemed to be growing just fine up to that point. He has an older sister that is on the opposite end of the growth spectrum. She is 6 and,literally, she is off the height chart. His slow growth didn't register with my wife and I because we just figured he would catch up. Well he just wasn't catching up. His friends in his daycare are his same age and they look like his older brothers. We took him to get the blood work and found out that his body had very low levels of thyroid hormones. So the boy was given thyroid medication to take. He took that for 3 months. We went back to the Dr. and the thyroid level had improved. He still takes the pills but the levels have come up. At the 3 month follow up the Dr. said that our boy had zero 0! growth hormone. That was also when we were told he was the average size of a 2 and a half year old. HGH was prescribed. I joked about very famous home run hitters when I heard we were going to be giving shots of HGH. The HGH is Genotropin. It came in two huge boxes. The boxes contained a bunch of paperwork, DVD, needles, alcohol wipes, and the Pen. I was intimidated by the whole prospect of giving shots to my boy every day. I just didn't think I could do it. Time passed and a Pfizer nurse came out to show us how to give the injections. She walked us through the process. I gave the first injection a week ago. I gave his latest injection about 20 minutes ago. I'm not writing this to say "well that was a tough week, but he seems to have caught up", nope I'm afraid this will be a long ride. I just hope it will be a long successful ride. The Dr. said that our boy would probably be about 5'1'' by age 18. That would have been without the Genotropin. My wife was really struck by that. Neither of us thought about it, we were just glad he was with us and healthy. That being said we want him to have a full life. Our families don't have any genetic history of dwarfism so we figured that our boys brain damage may be showing up this way. The shots have been started and I will be sure to track the progress on this blog. The boy deserves the best we can give him. Roughly two weeks after he came home my Mom went in for surgery. She never left the hospital and she died before she could meet her grandson. My Mom was frantic and she waited for all the updates I'd give her. My Mom was also very spiritual. She prayed often and she was devout in her Catholic faith. I'm positive that she somehow made a deal to go if our boy was allowed to stay. Losing my Mom the way I did at the time I did was painful. I know how much she loved the boy she never had a chance to meet. That is why I want to track his progress. I hope he does catch up and the shots can be stopped. I don't know what to expect. The only thing I know is that with this boy you can expect things, just be prepared to have your expectations exceeded. One week into Genotropin. Here's to you Mom! I'm going to hang my close on this line! (Love Ya)