Sam the Man...well almost...

14 years ago we found out Sam was very deficent with growth hormone...hence why he and Abby who was 2 years younger looked like twins. They were the same height and Sam's face looked like a 2 year old instead of 4. He wouldn't eat a dang thing. And he wouldn't grow at all. Straight lining it on the growth chart. I went through a terrible "I have too many kids" guilt trip when the doctor asked why he wasn't eating and why he wasn't growing. But after they finally decided to test for growth hormone we found out his pituitary gland is all messed up. The anterior portion is smaller than normal and the posterior portion is displaced...a congenital defect.

Now there is many times I am so thankful that I live in this day and age and this is one of them. After 14 years of administering NutropinAQ by injections every day Sam is 6 foot 3 1/2 inch with the doctor telling him he will be about 6 foot 7 inches. If he lived even 50 years ago there wouldn't have been no cure and he would have been the size of a 5 year old with many medical problems, even 30 years ago he would have had to use the growth hormone extracted from cadavers with the increase risk of contracting hepatitis, AIDS and many other blood born diseases. Nutropin these days is synthetically manufactured in clean sterile labs and does the trick very nicely.

Now Sam along with others have question the need to continue these growth hormone shots when he is already 6 foot 3 1/2 inches. We found out today at the doctor's visit. 4 months ago Sam was 6 foot 3 inches and weighed 183 pounds. Today he was 6 foot 3 1/2 inches and weighed 175 pounds. I would be estatic if I lost 8 pounds but this is not good for Sam. The doctor explained that it was muscle mass he was losing. He also said that boys at this age develope bone strength and if this doesn't happen osteoporsis sets in and all of the side effects of this disease. Growth Hormone along with testosterone also effects mood and drive. So we will continue to give Sam his daily dose of growth hormone alongs with his tri-weekly dose of testerone.

Again so glad for modern medicine...