Father's Day

Father's Day this year was spend on a short, easy hike up Helen Hunt Falls. It was a beautiful day and the falls were great. After our hike we had lunch in Old Colorado City. We ended our day with a walk through Rockledge Ranch. This ranch is an old period ranch with everyone in period costumes. Campbell loves these types of historical places. It was definitely a great family day.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year we went to the Denver Botanical Gardens and had a great time!!

Something Fun

Two weekends ago we took the kids camping. We went down to The Great Sand Dunes National Park. We went with some friends of ours. We had a great time!

These Kids!

This is another health related post. This is for Caleb though.

First, Campbell is the child who needs to be reminded each day (more than once) to brush her teeth. She's 10. You would think she wouldn't need reminding anymore, but she does. She really hates to brush her teeth. She rolls her eyes when I also remind her to floss, even though I was nice and got her these really cool kid flossers. Even with all of this she has never had a cavity. She does not have any space in her mouth for her teeth, but she has never had a cavity.

Caleb, on the other hand, loves brushing his teeth. He walks around with a toothbrush constantly brushing his teeth. He as no fewer than 3 toothbrushes around the house for convenient brushing. He gets very excited when he gets to choose a new tooth brush. He was over the moon with the new flossers I found for the kids. He takes his teeth hygiene very seriously.

Neither kid ever went to bed with a bottle. They have both had their teeth brushed since there first teeth appeared. They don't get a lot of sweets. They both drink more water than juice or milk. When they do drink juice, it's watered down. They both get daily vitamins. Caleb had a pacifier but it was never dipped in anything to make it sweet. These are all the things the pediatric dentist say to do. Also, both kids have the same parents and have been raised in the same house.

Wednesday we went to the dentist. Campbell's teeth were perfect, albeit crowded. She had no cavities. She is nearly 11 and has no cavities. The dentist was ready to throw a party. Until he looked at Caleb's teeth. Somehow, he has six! cavities starting to form. They are on his molars. He has had these molars in his mouth for less than 2 years. Two of them have been in there less than a year. How on earth does he get all these cavities? The dentist said it happens. It's most likely something that happened in utero (no guilt there). We will have his teeth painted to try to prevent the cavities from actually getting worse. They are not at the point where the need to be filled. We will have to keep a very close eye on his teeth. The dentist said that his permanent teeth will most likely be fine, but we will watch closely as they come in.

Apparently this is the summer to test us as parents.

Parenting is Hard

Ok it's been a long time since I updated, so I will start with the most recent update.

On June 5 we took Campbell in for Growth Hormone testing. She had to have an IV. When it was first insterted they gave her one hormone test. Every 30 minutes for 2 hours they withdrew blood for testing. At the 2 hour mark they gave her another medicine. Again, every 30 minutes for 2 hours they withdrew more blood. The entire test took 4 hours. They were testing the blood for growth hormone levels.

We got the results on Monday. They were hoping to see her levels spike over a 10.0 just once. (Kids normally run at a rate of 20-30.) Her highest level was a 9.1. Out of 8 blood draws her highlest growth hormone level was 9.1. The conclusion is that she is growth hormone deficient. She does not produce enough growth hormone for her to achieve a full adult height. Without any intervention with the levels they way they are, she might reach 4'9". That is a tiny person.

Last night we met with the endocrinologist to discuss options. We wanted to know pros and cons of treating as well as pros and cons of not treating. The biggest and probably most important thing for us that we learned concerned her health as an adult. If we do not treat her now there is a 30% chance that as an adult (in her 40's to 50's) she could suffer heart problems, immunity problems, bone density problems, as well as others.

As parents, we feel it is our responsibility to help her become the healthiest adult she can be. Because we know that some of these health issues exist on both sides of our families, we want to do all we can to help her avoid some of these. For this reason we have decided to move forward with growth hormone treatment.

This is not something we go into lightly. This is a huge commitment. We will be injecting our child with growth hormones (a banned substance in sports) six days per week for the next 8 years of her life. Campbell, being the child she is, worked out the formula to figure out how many shots that is for her. It's over 2000 shots of growth hormone. We have to get special wavers for her to participate in sports in high school. (If they ever did a drug test on her, she will come up positive for performance enhancing drugs.) If she is ever to go into the military we have to prove tha this is a medical necessity. (It is. She's not even considered in the grey zone. She is most definitely deficient and meets every criteria for medical necessity.)

Monday evening Campbell shed a lot of tears. Aaron and I held back our fears so that we could comfort her and not let her know how frightened we were of this diagnosis. After our discussion with the doctor last night, we all feel much better and are ready to move forward.

She has 2 more tests to take, probably next week and then we begin treatment. The first test is another hormone test to make sure she is producing cortizol (sp?). The second one is the one that scares me. Not the test itself, but what they are looking for. She has to have an MRI to make sure that she does not have any tumors on her petuitary gland. Any speak of tumors anywhere in her brain freaks me out. The doctor said that she is not showing any symptoms (besides the deficiency) for either of these issues. They just have to perform these tests as part of protocol.

These treatments will begin in July or early August. The doctor expects her to grow 3 inches over the next year. Usually she grows only 1/2" in a year, so 3" is pretty significant for her. We will keep you updates as we move forward with this.