It's Working!

Zoe's daily injections of growth hormones (a.k.a Princess Medicine) is working! It's a miracle (well, mostly science)!

I took Zoe to see her Endocrinologist yesterday for a "been on g.h. for three months now" check-up. Zoe's pants have been getting pretty short lately so my hopes have been high. And the night before her appointment, we measured Zoe on her growth chart. We measured her somewhere between 34 & 35 inches. Sweet. So we could tell she's been growing. And lots of friends and family have made comments that Zoe looks taller. But we weren't really sure if it was just 'normal' growth or 'normal' + 'extra' which would = AWESOMENESS.

So here are the stats:

She's 34.1 inches tall and weighs 22.5 pounds. She grew 2.3 inches and gained 1.5 pounds in three months. Compare that to the 1 inch she grew and 0.5 pounds she lost from October to February (four months) before we started the medicine.

They also drew some of Zoe's blood yesterday (yeah, that was fun) to run tests on her thyroids and the hormone that is being affected by the medicine (I can't remember exactly which hormone it is). They are just monitoring those to make sure there aren't any adverse side affects. We'll get the results in about a week.

The Dr. has a chart (all you moms out there know what I'm talking about) that shows the growth curve for weight and height. Zoe has ALWAYS been below the bottom line (for example, that's usually when I say she's in the negative 5th percentile). Well, for the first time yesterday Zoe was touching the bottom line for her height! I couldn't believe my eyes and seriously almost started crying. Her weight is still below the curve but at least we're moving in the right direction finally.

The Dr. is optimistic that Zoe will be caught up in height by the time she goes to kindergarten. This is great news!

Just FYI, even if she catches up we will still continue with the growth hormones. We will be doing this until Zoe is finished growing....when she's a teenager.

I'm so relieved for a couple of reasons.

1) It was such a tough decision to start the shots. We were really nervous about how Zoe's body would react to them and also how she would react emotionally. So far everything is going smoothly. The only side effect we've noticed is that Zoe has more energy. Some people might call it hyperactivity. But in Zoe's case it has just made her more like a normal 2 year old with lots of energy (she used to be extremely quiet and still). She's not out of control (well, she does throw temper tantrums here or there, but we figured out that if we just remove her from the situation she'll calm down). We actually like this new found energy!

As for the emotional part, Zoe seems to be handling it all just fine. Doing Princess Medicine every night is the new normal for us and it's totally uneventful. Zoe sits on Mike's lap and I do the shot while they sing a song or something distracting to Zoe. Then Zoe gets to put stickers on a calendar (thanks Libby!) afterwards. Zoe even randomly asks me sometimes if we can do Princess Medicine, even if it's in the middle of the day. I find myself telling Zoe that 'no, we can't do it right now' more than I'm having to convince her she 'wants' to do the medicine.

2) There have been a couple of situations where I have gotten into a conversation with somebody I don't know super well about Zoe's size. It usually goes something like this:

Other: "Oh, she's cute. How old is she?"

Me: "Thank you, she's two."

Other: "Oh. She's really tiny."

Me: "Yep."

---talk about Zoe's tiny size for a while---

Me: "We just started giving her growth hormones."

Other: "What?! No, she doesn't need that. She's just fine! Look at her, she's not tiny!"

---I spend a few minutes trying to explain Zoe's situation in a nut shell and why we decided to do the hormones. My blood is slowly starting to boil.---

Other: "No, she's not even small. You should see (insert some kid's name here). Now THAT's a small kid!"

Me: Fighting back the tears. I'm not a crier (except when I'm running a marathon) so I'm not too concerned about the tears...but I am getting emotional. I usually change the subject now. If we get to know each other more, I’ll pick up the conversation and go into more detail about why we decided to take this course.

---End of fake dialogue.

Mike's fake dialogue goes more like the old Head and Shoulder's commercials...

Mike: "She's on growth hormone. Growth hormone helps her not be so tiny."

Other: "But she's not soooo tiny...."

Mike: "exactly…"

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That’s how I feel.. “It’s because of the shots she’s not sooo tiny!” I just never seem to be able to communicate that effectively if discussing this with someone who is flabbergasted that we even considered growth hormone…

Well, at least the doctor’s visit gave us some medical results to help back up our decision. That’s easier & quicker to share with anyone who tells us we’re crazy for putting Zoe on growth hormones than trying to discuss clinical trials, advances in HGH, background research, our decision making process, and answers to prayer.

Okay, enough venting, let's end with a cute picture and videos!

These two videos are actually one video divided into two: