Liliana and I set off for Springfield this morning in rush hour traffic with her bag full of comfort objects and entertainment, ready for whatever the morning would bring us. Well, everything except what happened.
The specialist measured her and said that she grew an inch, not 1/4 inch.
Good news, I know, but frustrating too. What's up with the difference in measurements? And how does this change what they've been telling me for 5 months? There's still an x-ray showing 1.5 years delay in growth and preliminary blood work that showed a growth hormone deficiency. Trust me, I'm glad they don't want to stick a hep-lock in my baby, but I don't want it to be at her detriment if they find out down the road that something WAS wrong, but some measurement issues messed it up.
Lucky for you, I get to explain this to you this afternoon when I understand it- mostly. Our regular pediatrician's and the specialist's measurements are not being done with the same ruler- they are about one inch off.
Exhibit One:
Ped. 9/17: 36.5 in
Spec. 9/29: 37.5 in
Ped. 1/28: 37.75 in
Spec. 2/24: 38.5 in
So by either doctor's measurements, she DID grow an inch. But we were comparing the 2nd Pediatrician measurement to the 1st Specialist measurement, which shows almost no growth. It's like apples and oranges- two separate things- fine on their own, but don't mix them!
They will continue to watch her closely, but their diagnosis right now is that she has a year and a half constitutional delay. She will probably be about that far behind her peers UNTIL they stop growing, while she continues to grow for a year and a half after them. If she stops growing again, then they will reevaluate if she needs the 2-hour- lots-of-needles-test. The doctor says that at this age we're ok waiting, and if we were to catch it in 6 months or a year, she would still have plenty of time to grow.
And knowing that I could walk out of the office not feeling like my daughter wasn't getting what she needed. The last thing I want to do is make a mistake in judgment that my child will have to pay for. Being short isn't the worst thing in the world- but I wouldn't want her to be abnormally small because I didn't stand up for her and she missed her chance for a treatment that was available. We have time- and hopefully she'll continue to grow, even if it's a little behind everyone else.
And just in case you wanted to know- if you plot her on the 3 year old height chart (the age of her bones) she is in the 75%. Maybe she'll be taller than her mom after all :)
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