Doctor Appointments and Tests

Sophie went to see her GI doctor two weeks ago. They were concerned about her lack of growth in the past 6 months (as were we). Before the appointment, Joe and I wrote down a bunch of questions and things that we wanted them to test Sophie for. It has been over a year since we've looked for causes for Sophie's small size/lack of an appetite and while it was okay to believe that there was no causes for awhile, I was ready to start trying to find one again. I just wanted to make sure that we hadn't missed anything.

The GI doc agreed that we should try testing Sophie for a few different things. She ordered a bunch of different tests, which meant Sophie needed to give them some blood samples. They didn't take it that day since she needed to fast, so Joe took her to do it last weekend. He said that she didn't cry or even flinch when they took the blood. Instead she just sat still and watched as they drew her blood. I'm so proud of her! I am still not that brave; I whine every time.

So many tests!

Another thing that happened at the appointment was that once again we will try the appetite stimulant that we gave Sophie when she was 8 months old. So far it has worked well (it makes her really cranky though!). She is hungry about 15-30 minutes after we give her the medicine. After only a few days of being on the medicine she gained about 8 ounces! That is more than she had gained in the past 7 months. I know this isn't a permanent fix and probably will only last a few weeks. I don't even care if she gains that much more weight from it. I just want her to be hungry and open to trying out different foods. Hopefully she will find some healthy foods that she really likes and will eat even when she isn't on the medicine (not so much luck yet in this area though).

The last things that the GI did was to refer Sophie to Endocrinology When I called to schedule that appointment I was amused to find out that the endocrinologist she was going to see shares our last name (no relation). Small world. Joe took her to that appointment and he said it was a complete waste of time. They had to wait for almost 2 hours to get into see the doctor and when they finally saw her she had nothing really to say. Everything she would have suggested had already been looked at and tested. (And even though we are very anti growth hormone treatments, the doctor said that Sophie wouldn't be a candidate anyway because she doesn't get enough calories each day. I'm glad for this because that means we won't have any doctor's trying to make us go down that path.) She ordered a few more blood test and said to come back in six months. Joe took Sophie for the blood tests but he said he will not take her back to see them as it would be a waste of time again.

The nice thing with our hospital is that we can go online now and see all of Sophie's test results. Every test that she has taken since her doctors started this whole 'what is wrong with this child' bit (since she was 2 1/2 months old) is listed on there. There were some results that I had heard a 'it's all normal' result about but had no other details for (like her genetics test), so was nice to be a will to go and look at them. We checked all of her most recent test results and they all came back negative! I am so happy and thrilled with this! The only downside to having all results come back normal is that there are still no answers. Even though I am ecstatic over Sophie not having anything wrong, I can't help but be a little frustrated that we still have no answers. I am not wishing anything to be wrong with my daughter (I really am not one of those people. I promise!), I just want an answer. It is so hard not knowing. (Side note: I was watching the season finale of Teen Mom 2 the other night and found myself crying right along with Leah as she was having her daughter tested. She gets what it is like to not understand what is going on with her child-the fear and frustration of it all. As I watched her have them put her child to sleep and waiting for results, I was transported back to so many different appointments and procedures that Sophie has been through. Heartbreaking to watch and heartbreaking to live through.)

So after all these appointments and tests that we've put the poor girl through the past few weeks, we have no answers still as to why Sophie has such slow growth and no appetite. We still have one more thing that we can try, which is a delayed gastric emptying test. She can't have this test done until she is three, so we will have to wait a few more months before we can do this. I have always wondered if she just digests things slowly  (I even have this on a note of questions for GI from two years ago). I guess we will see in a few months. If those results come back normal, then we are completely done searching for answers. We will know that we really have tried all that we know to try and will truly be satisfied that we've done all that we can.