Medical mumbo jumbo

Okay here is the update on the Kiddo and his menagerie of medical mysteries (hows that for a lot of m's).

As mentioned a couple days ago we finally got the results back from the blood work he had done a couple months ago. They tested for several things so I'll take it point by point.

-First Result- His cortisol system may be abnormal, his levels were low. Low cortisol by itself does not mean a lot. He will need to have a stimulation test to know whether the low cortisol levels are of significance or not. Basically if he responds normally to the stimulation test, then his levels are normal. However if they do not respond normally to the stimulation test, then he will be considered to have "significant" low cortisol. If that is the case then the reasons for it may be in the brain (hypothalamus or pituitary) or may be in the adrenal gland itself .. at that point they'll try and figure out what is causing it and he'll take a daily medication to help balance the level.

I'm a little unclear on what exactly a low cortisol level means. I'm sure I'll get a better understanding if his levels come back low after the test, till then I'm not going to worry about it to much but thought it should be included in the update.

-Second Result- He has Hypothyroidism. Rather then type a lot trying to explain exactly what that means I've linked it to the best article I could find via google. At first I was not worried about this at all. But as I do research (bad BAD Internet, BAD research, BAD me for being so information driven that I read everything I can find)... anyway as I do research I've begun to get a little concerned. My big concern right now is the medication to treat the condition seems to be very hard to get the correct dosage of (since the dosage changes with weight/age/height etc) and that an incorrect dosage can have physical/physiological repercussions. I will have to ask a lot more questions when I next talk to the doc. Medication for this wont start until we get the cortisol stress test done and get the results back.

-Third Result- Yes, as feared, his "growth factors" are low as well. Basically he has a low level of growth hormones. The good news on this count is that the hypothyroidism could be accounting for the slow growth on the Kiddo's part and by medicating that we could fix the problem and will quite possible not need to treat the low growth hormone levels. Plus he did grow a good half an inch in the last 1-2 months and that is a sign that the low levels aren't the cause of his smaller growth. At this point my fingers are crossed that this is the case, we will continue to keep an eye on him and possibly test him again at a later date but when I say later date I mean 6 months, or quite a bit longer depending on everything else. So really not great news but good news none the less.

-Fourth Result- was not blood work related but the result of his bone age/density x-ray. You ready for this? His bone age density is that of a two year old!! He's four! We were hoping they would come back as that of a 3 year old so I guess 2 is even better. Basically what this means is that he is actually on the correct growth curve for the age of his bones. If you put him on the growth curve for a 4 year old he's very short, and at the end of his growth he would barely get to my height (5'4"). But if you plot him on the growth curve for a 2 year old he is average and at the end of the curve he will be the Man's height (6'1").

In essence when a four year old with four year old bone age/density stops growing at 16 years old, the Kiddo will continue to grow for two more years until his bone age catches up. He'll do those two years of growing at the end vs the beginning. Very good news and very encouraging for his overall fully grown height.

So there you have it folks. The Man says he takes blame for 1 year of the bone age (genetics, he grew late) and we can blame the other year on the hypothyroidism. Between the late growing genetics and the medication to fix the hypothyroidism the kiddo should bounce back into a more "normal" growth pattern very soon.