It begins!

Last night,  January 19, Andrew had his first shot.  The meds arrived from overnight carrier and the nurse came over at 6 to help us figure it all out.  She was very patient and kind. We practiced putting the pen together, loading the meds, giving the shot on a dummy tool she had. Andrew even practiced giving the shot himself. After about an hour, we were ready to do it. Andrew decided he wanted to use the needle guard, which hides the needle so you can't see it. He was nervous but brave. He decided on his upper left thigh for the shot. The nurse stood by me as I gave it to him. Andrew said he barely felt anything at all, not even as much as a pinch! He is so glad it doesn't hurt and feels much less nervous now. I have my notes and all the tools Genotropin sent so hopefully I can do it myself tonight!!! 

52 inches (maybe slightly under)
Armpit to Wrist 15 inches
Groin to Ankle 24.5 inches
Waist 23.5 inches

It's almost time

The Genotropin folks are sending Andrew interim meds until insurance covers.  It will arrive Tuesday and the nurse will come out Tuesday to teach us how to use it and give the first injection. 

Up To Now

A little background on how we got to where we are now. Andrew has always been short, staying in the 3% and under range at appointments. As he's gotten older, we've become more concerned. It's become very obvious that there's a significant height difference now that the other kids his age are maturing and growing at faster rates. Andrew has stayed around 50-52 inches for the last 3 years. This prompted us to check his bone age. In October we had an x-ray of his hand, which showed his bone age as being approximately 2.5 years behind. Meaning that while he was 11 years, 10 months, his bone age was 9 and a half years old. This confirmed that we were right to continue to check for reasons for his slower growth.  A few months before this, we decided to decrease his ADHD meds with hopes to increase caloric intake and sleep.  He put on a couple of pounds, but no height increase. After the bone x-ray, we were able to make an appointment to get his blood checked out. They took several viles of blood and checked for any disorders that could cause growth delay.  We honestly thought it was just genetic at this point, so we were not concerned. His blood work showed he's perfectly healthy, nothing to worry about there.  The big test was next, his STIM test. This is a 4 hour blood draw test where he is given medication to stimulate growth hormone release, and has blood drawn about every 20 minutes to see the levels. This test revealed that he is producing half to slightly less than half of the typical growth hormone levels. This also confirmed that it is not medicine related or "late bloomer", he really is not producing enough HGH to grow to a normal height.   Once that test was completed we were able to schedule an MRI of his brain. This was to check for any pituitary gland issues. His MRI came back fine, so HGH treatments are the next step. 

Once we had all this information, we had to sit and wait. By this time it was December 2015, and our insurance is scheduled to change on Jan 1, 2016. The drug rep and the endo team thought it was best to wait until the new insurance takes over to submit for treatment.  It's mid January now and the insurance is still being worked out. The endo team is appealing a denial they gave us asking for a 2nd test to prove HGH levels. In the mean time, the drug rep is sending us bridge treatment. This will get us through 90 days until insurance approves completely.  We are hoping to get treatments started by the end of the month at the latest.