Dr. Chaundry said Allie is currently a candidate for growth hormones, however we are going to wait 6-8 months and see if her growth picks up at all. She said that Allie' growth curve is proof that she is not growing properly, however there are many factors that can play into stunted growth. Some of the main factors are as follows:
1) nutrition
2) genetics
3) Inherent - like SGA (small for gestational age)
We don't know why Allie isn't growing properly, but she did get extensive blood work done yesterday to check for several things. Allie also got a bone age test done (X-ray of her had) to determine her bone age. She had this test done back in 2009 and she was right on target for her age. However, Dr. Chaundry said yesterday that she is hoping Allie's bone age comes back young for her age because if it comes back at a 3 year old level, something else might be going on. She shouldn't have such a small figure and bone structure at the age of 3 (if her bone age is truly a 3 year old level). Anyway, I'm trying not to stress until we get her bone age back from the doctor.
Dr. Chaundry is checking Allie's IGF1 which also plays a roll in her growth hormone and bone growth. It was brought to my attention yesterday that Allie had this checked back in 2009 at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and it was low. Several months later, it was rechecked and it was normal. Malnutrition can play a big part of her IGF1 so it's possible she had the test done before she had he feeding tube and that made her results low.
Dr. Chaundry commented on how "yellow" Allie looked. She did blood work to check her creatinine level and her vitamin A level. Several months ago, Allie's creatinine level was high but it wasn't because of eating too many "orange" things. The doctors told us not to worry about it, however her doctor yesterday wanted it re-tested. She is thinking it's possible that Allie is getting too much vitamin A and that is causing her to turn yellow. We don't know but hopefully the blood work will give us some answers.
The doctor is also thinking of testing Allie for "Turner Syndrome". One of the major characteristics of that syndrome is short stature. We decided it wasn't necessary to test her quite yet but we will think about it for the future.
A lot more was discussed at the appointment but these were most of the highlights. So, we sit and wait for results. This doctor said right away it's obvious that Allie doesn't feel the hunger sensation and she said Allie's health issue with that started in utero. She said that since she was born SGA, her body wasn't processing the hunger signal while in my belly and that was the start of her eating issues. She said that if Allie felt the hunger sensation, she wouldn't have been born SGA because i was providing all the nutrition she needed, however her body wasn't accepting or getting it. It was interesting, however no doctor can tell me who we need to see in getting this diagnosis or how to treat it.
Overall the appointment was good and we are hoping to get some answers from the blood work and bone age test. We should get results for some of the tests by the end of next week. I'll let you know what we find out.
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| My little beam of sunshine! |
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