“Mommy”

Drawing by Sam
Colored with help from Mommy

(And yes, I do have two faces… hmm.)

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Sugarbaby: An Update

Sam and his bionic arm. (Okay, it’s just an IV.)

Sam and I visited the hospital last week so he could have a cortisol test. The doctors are very interested in his cortisol levels because, if you recall, he has an ectopic posterior pituitary gland, and the pituitary produces both cortisol and growth hormone, two very important chemicals in the human body. He’s been diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency, and now we inject him with HGH every evening (he’s a trooper–he really doesn’t mind his shots), but since his blood glucose hasn’t really improved the way the doctors expect it would, they decided to go looking for other hormonal culprits.

His cortisol levels are fine. His thyroid is fine. They’re even starting to reevaluate the diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency, which means we’ll probably have to go through another grueling hormone test, plus meetings with a metabolic specialist and whatever tests he needs to conduct.

Even a Smile Helps

This smile, especially.

Sometimes, I want to stop and tell all the mothers out there who have healthy children how blessed they are. Sometimes, I want to go to them one by one and punch them each in the face. Then my son is admitted to the children’s hospital and I see how much worse it could be, and I kind of want to invite all the sick kids’ mothers to come around and punch me. Not that I’m a huge advocate of violence, but I really think it would make them feel better.

My son’s life has been a roller coaster ride, and he’s not even two years old. Not only was he blessed with an impatient and emotionally immature mother, but he was born with an ectopic posterior pituitary gland, which means the lobes of his pituitary (a very important gland, if you don’t know, responsible for the production of cortisol and growth hormones) are separate, instead of cozied up to each other as they should be. This has caused blood sugar problems, which went undiagnosed for a long time because he also has (or is thought to have–it’s no longer clear if the seizures have to do with blood sugar or are unrelated) epilepsy, and the low blood sugar symptoms were attributed to that. So far, the reason for his sugar issues are not 100% clear; he’s going to have a test tomorrow to determine if he has a growth hormone deficiency, which would explain it. If he does, we’ll have to start nightly hormone injections and he should start to get better. If not, we’ll have to see a metabolic specialist and the mystery will continue. He’s currently on anti-seizure medication and we’ve been checking his blood sugar each morning. Due to some low numbers, we’ve also added a nighttime feeding to his schedule and another blood sugar check. If his numbers continue be low or he has more alarming symptoms, then we’ll take him back to the hospital because it won’t be safe for him to stay at home.