3rd Precentile

First let me say that we had a wonderful Christmas and I promise that post will come later. Right now I need to talk about the events of this morning.

I took the day off work and since I knew months ago I would be off today I scheduled the kids yearly check ups for first thing this morning. I got up early and got myself ready before I went and woke the kids up. By 9am we were walking in the door of the doctors office. We were the first appointment of the day so we didn't have to wait to go back to the room. Once there both the kids had to be weighed and measured. I remember Emma was exactly 40 pounds but I can't remember her height now just that it was normal compared to her weight and her growth chart. After Emma went it was Ian's turn and for some reason he didn't now want to get on the scale. Like with Emma sitting here right now I can only remember Ian's weight of 28 pounds which is following his 30th percentile growth chart.

After that the kids had to take there clothes off and put robes on while we waited the one minute for the doctor to come in. She checked Emma first and everything was perfect. Her weight and height is finally back to normal after the tonsil issues when she was 3. Her tonsils were so large when she was three she was unable to eat much of anything causing her to not gain weight or grow in height. After she had them removed she gained and large amount of weight and grew which was normal for what she had gone through but now she is back in the 25th percentile for both height and weight which is where she was before the tonsils.

Next up was Ian and right away our doctor went into Ian's numbers. His weight was still in the 30th percentile but his height was of some concern. He had dropped to the 3rd percentile in height and anything under 5 is a concern. She asked if Dave or I had any family history of Growth Hormone Deficiency's which as you all know we don't really know since Dave and I don't know our biological fathers. I had to explain to my doctor about this and then say that from the family we do know there is no history of this. Of course I asked what her thoughts were about what would be causing Ian not to grow and she seems to think it's one of two things.

First one being a growth hormone deficiency but typically with this it's something they are born with and they just don't grow from day one. Ian doesn't fit this because up until this past year he was growing just fine, but that wasn't enough for her to rule it out.

The second thing she thinks it could be is Celiac Disease which is and allergy to Gluten's (wheat, rye, and barley) which is a digestive disease usually accompanied by constant diarrhea. Ian doesn't not have diarrhea except for the occasions of the flu so maybe once or twice a year.

These two diseases left us with two options at this point. One being going to a specialist and the other having some test run through them to see what is going on with Ian. Running the test first seemed to me like the smartest and easiest option so my doctor filled out a slip to go and have some lab work done. She did finish the rest of Ian's exam and other than his height he is perfectly healthy!

Since I was all ready off today I decided to just go and have the lab work done. So I went straight from the doctors office to the Lab. I am really glad I did that because it was nice and slow today. When I walked in there wasn't anyone else there so we didn't have any waiting to do.

The first thing they did was take an x-ray of Ian's wrist so they can see what his growth plate is saying. If it's only showing as a 1 year old then that will be able to point them towards what is wrong. Until now I hadn't thought to ask what that might point towards. After that it was time to have some blood drawn. They had Ian sit on my lap and one nurse came in to hold the shoulder and arm they were going to draw the blood from while I held Ian's other arm. I actually just put him in a huge bear hug, while the third nurse was the one to draw the blood. Just like his father Ian's veins are very hard to find once they did they stuck the needle in and of course Ian started to cry but nothing to bad. There wasn't any blood coming out and the nurse was trying to figure that out when Ian let out a huge scream and stared to squirm. The cause of this was Ian's vein rolling which is also just like his dad. It took what seemed like forever for the nurses to get the vein t stay still and for it to release the large amount of blood they needed for the test.

At one point during all of this I looked over at Emma who was sitting off to the side to see her crying. This completely broke my heart. There I was holding Ian who was screaming crying and I couldn't help him and then Emma is crying and I can't get up to console her because I have to keep holding Ian. As much as I wanted to cry then I didn't which makes me very proud of myself I just kept talking to both Emma and Ian telling them it was ok and it would all be over soon. Once they finally got all the blood they needed one of the nurses went over to Emma and gave her a big hug and then let her pick out a special band aid for Ian while I held and rocked Ian. Emma choose a Charlie Brown and Snoopy band aid which Ian loved. The nurses also let both Emma and Ian pick out a sticker to take with them which I thought was very nice.

By the time we left there it was getting close to lunch so I called Dave and decided since I was half between home and his work I would just go meet him and we could all go to lunch. We let Ian pick where to eat and at first he wanted McDonalds but then we told him he could have anywhere so he decided on HomeTown Buffet. By the time we got there Ian was back to his normal self and he must have been a starving Ian because he ate two chicken legs, a helping of Mac and Cheese, some french fries, mashed potatoes, and chocolate ice cream for desert.

Until about an hour ago I hadn't thought much about the events of this morning because I didn't want to. I kept myself distracted so I wouldn't have to. The doctor said that either of the things she thinks it is can be treated but this all still seems very scary to me. I feel a little helpless right now. There is something wrong with my baby and I can't fix it and I don't like this feeling. Of course once I started thinking about it I got online and looked up Celiac because I didn't know much about it. This was a mistake because I looked at what it was, then the systoms of it some of which are irritability, and dry itchy skin both of which Ian seems to have. Then I clicked on the button labeled Common Diseases Associated with Celiac. this list was pretty long and in it were Type 1 diabetes and cancer there was also a type of rash that I don't know how to spell but reading about it I actually think Ian may have recently had an outbreak of it that only lasted about a day. We have always thought Ian had eczema like his siter but a few weeks ago he had a rash in the diaper area that looked a little different. We put aquafora on it hoping that would take care of it and it did but now I am wondering.

After reading that I decided to close out of that page and I am not going to look up anything else because I don't want to get myself all worked up over nothing. We wont know for about a week what is really going on so until then I will do my best to act normal. In an effort to do that the kids and I are going to the zoo tomorrow with my friends Shanna and Jenn and there kids. We are going to take advantage of the record highs for tomorrow of almost 70 degrees.

Ok I think I am finally done for tonight and I know this was long so thank you for listening or reading my complete ramblings I just needed to get this all down and out of my system.