Monday, June 16, 2008

I am so thankful...

Jonathan's thyroid is normal! A few months ago Jonathan had some blood work done because our pediatrician had a slight concern that he might not be growing as fast as SHE'd like. (I emphasize SHE because as much as we love this pediatrician, she has an issue about height...Mike and I both know we are short and it doesn't bother us and we don't expect Jonathan to be exceptionally tall either, but she wanted us to have all the info in case for some reason there was a growth hormone deficiency or something). Well anyway, when the blood work came back, his THYROID numbers were a little off (growth hormone is fine). The doctor called us and told us this while we were on our way up to CT for Memere's funeral. She said it wasn't a huge deal, but wanted to repeat the test in two months. I did a much better job than normal about not worrying about this, so much so that I don't even think I mentioned it to anyone. It has now been two months, so last week I called the office to schedule more blood work. They faxed the orders to Mike's office and we went to Labcorp on Friday afternoon. Jonathan, Madi, Jake and I waited an hour for Jonathan's name to be called. For some reason the only technician drawing blood was also the only person answering the phones and checking people in as well. By this time the waiting room had thinned out and so I left Madi and Jake in the waiting area and went with Jonathan into the next room where they took his blood. (There was only one lady in the waiting area with them at the time, she was the woman who told Madi there weren't any opportunities for homeschoolers.) The technician stuck the needle in Jonathan's arm...no blood, she moved it around a little...still nothing. Then she stuck the other arm, then she wiggled it around on that side-- no blood. By this time he's getting a little uncomfortable. He really wanted to leave and the technician was giving up. I encouraged them both to try one more time, knowing we had already wasted an hour there and had the next few weeks full of Kids' College, Theatre camp etc... Finally back on the first arm, she got some blood. As it slowly trickled into the test tube all of the color quickly drained from Jonathan's face. He almost passed out. I am no stranger to medical emergencies so I immediately go into panic mode! After a few cups of water, a lifesaver candy, and call to Mike, Jonathan was feeling well enough to head to McDonald's to get something to eat. (a little background...Jonathan had a serious blood sugar issue as a young child, and it comes back to haunt me whenever he isn't feeling well, which thankfully isn't very often) Like I said, I did really well about not worrying over the potential thyroid problem, but for the last few days (before and after the blood test), I've thought about it more and more..."Is he seeming to tired?" "does he not have enough energy?" etc...Well, we got the call a little while ago...his thyroid is NORMAL...Thank God!!

7 comments:

crispy said...

We have had so many visits to the blood lab. It is just so traumatic. I know that if Tissy hasn't had enough to drink it is a pain to get the blood. UGH. I have also learned the hard way of NOT going after we have been running and playing and almost dehydrated.

Poor thing...I am glad that the results were normal.

Anonymous said...

Praise God! I am so sorry that he had such a bad lab experience though.

ann marie said...

What a scare for you. I'm glad you know for sure that he is well.

DebiH. said...

Yeah! That's great news.

Randi Sue said...

Whew! Thats a relief.

I can't believe a lady would tell a child that about homeschoolers. Even if it was true, why would you tell a child?

Steph C. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
5Gustos said...

So glad for your normal results. Sorry about the ordeal to figure that out. It's hard when the doctor is compelled to check something out "just in case". I can empathize with the "he's too short" scenario. My eldest once had all the blood work-ups to check everything under the sun. Then they sent him for a hand x-ray just to be sure of proper bone growth. Oh, and BTW...they also thought he had Down's Syndrome before he was born. Such worry over nothing. It's sometimes hard to be a mom.

I could also tell him about the time I took my 3 kids with me on a HS field trip to the blood bank to donate my blood. They got to watch me faint before their eyes! Sooo funny.... (now!)