The Growth Hormone Debate

If you saw my post on Love Wyatt this afternoon, you know we had an endocrine appointment today. I posted about crossing fingers and toes for good growth or we would have to explore growth hormone. I also promised to explain more, so here I am. 

(But first... cute WyGuy photo!)

Part of Optic Nerve Hypoplasia is issues with hormones like thyroid, cortisol, and pituitary dysfunction. This is because the optic nerves are right around the pituitary which is your master gland. I can only assume they develop around the same time in utero. Because your pituitary gland does an awful lot for your body, if it doesn't function right, it can make things go poorly. Wyatt has been fortunate that his pituitary gland is fully developed, and so far appears to be doing its job. Many kids with ONH have difficulties with growth. Wyatt is one of them. Lengthwise, he hasn't grown a whole lot (and he started out short to begin with) and there is some cause for concern. Growth hormone isn't just for growing tall, it's also important for development. 

Wyatt has had a lot of blood work to see what's going on with his levels and his thyroid levels have consistently been borderline, which is a little tricky to understand because most of the values are based on adults, not kids, so it's difficult to determine what is "normal" for a young child, but we do know his values are borderline. As a result, our endocrinologist wanted to try intervening with thyroid meds to see if that might kick start his thyroid, which could also contribute to slow growth. So we started with synthroid (synthetic thyroid hormone) in January to see if it has an impact. 

Unfortunately, he didn't grow much since our last visit. The other unfortunate part is the lab never sent the April labs to the endocrinologist, so we didn't even really know if his thyroid levels are stable or if they are still low, which could mean we need to increase to see an impact with growth. It also could mean he's not really hypothyroid, so the synthroid isn't doing anything. 

All that to say, we don't really have any answers. I'd love to say I'm shocked, but our guy is truly a medical mystery, so it's pretty much on trend for him. 

We are going to get the lab results, then make adjustments to synthroid if need be. We will retest him in 2 months, readjust if need, test again, then return in 6 months. At that point we will complete a growth stimulation test which involves lots of blood draws, some injections, and lots of interpretation. 

If he is truly growth hormone deficient, that test will tell us. His last growth test was not remarkable, so the other thought could be he's just a short guy. Which could make sense, as Brian's side of the family isn't tall. The drawback to growth hormone is that it's injections. Daily. For years. So you can imagine that we are cautious about jumping into an intervention without first exploring all other options. 

So... another appointment with zero answers, but we have next steps so I can accept the no answers as long as we have a plan. 

What? This isn't how you eat avocado? Weird.