Hospital Day

Greetings from the hospital. I'm here today with Bubbles, who is undergoing a huge battery of endocrinology tests. For the first 6 1/2 years of her life, she was neglected, horribly malnourished, and had no medical care. When she was in foster care, she filled out and gained health. But it wasn't until she was in the security of our home and family--which she knew would be forever--that her body was able to respond. Over the last 20 months, she has more than made up for lost time.

People, she has grown 8 inches and gained 29 pounds in 20 months. She came to me in a little girls' size 6 clothes. Now she's in a size 10 pants and 12 shirts. She has grown in other ways, too--ways that she shouldn't be growing at age 9.

Our pediatrician referred her to to an endocrinologist back in October, and we had our first appointment then. Bubbles had a bone age test done, and it revealed that sure enough, he body thinks it is in puberty. 9 isn't abnormally young for the onset of puberty. The big concern is the speed at which it has happened. The endocrinologist said in October that Bubbles has done 3 years' worth of maturing in 6 months. She's on track to reach the peak of puberty by the end of this year. Then, she will only grow for another couple of years at the most. If she continues at her current rate, she'll top off at about 4'11" and will be physically mature by age 12. Definitely not ideal!

So today, we're at the hospital. She started out her morning getting an IV and having a whole bunch of blood drawn. They'll be running every test under the sun. Next, she got flooded with puberty hormones. She'll have blood draws over the next 4 hours to monitor how her brain handles those hormones. It will show us how progressed her puberty is. She's also going to have an MRI of her brain at some point...not sure yet if that is today or not.

Once the doctor gets the results, we'll discuss what to do next. At the very least, Bubbles we need monthly hormone injections to slow down the progression of puberty. She needs more time to be a little girl, more time for her body to grow.

I am very thankful for a wonderful hospital, patient, compassionate nurses, and good medical insurance. And I'm so glad we finally are getting these tests done!