So....why did we go??

Had an appointment in the hospital this (early...) morning. Kalle's growth hormone level had been tested twice in the last couple of months and both times it was too low. This hormone deficit might explain why Kalle is still pretty short for his age and why he didn't grow at all since october. On the other hand, this deficit would be caused by a malfunction of the hypophysis, a very small part of the brain. Usually this malfunction would also cause other problems, for example a malfunction of the thyroid. But that's not the case.

So...today they wanted to run another test, a bigger one. Kalle wasn't allowed to eat after 4 am. At 9 am we had the appointment. What was supposed to happen: Kalle would get Clonidine, some kind of drug that stimulates the production of the growth hormone. During the 2,5 hours after taking the Clonidie they would take blood from Kalle's finger every 30 minutes (= six times).
Usually they don't take the blood from the finger. They prefer inserting an intravenous line. But that's almost impossible 'cause Kalle's veins like to hide from the doctors :-). Smart veins... That's why they agreed to prick his finger(s) instead of torturing him for a long time with that intravenus line. What they didn't tell us: they needed a LOT of blood from his small fingers. Six times. If we would have known we would have told them that this is also a problem. Cause it was before. We thought it would be just the usual fingerprick that we know from testing Kalle's bloodsugar and ketone levels. But no... So guess what: that didn't work either. There was just not enough blood.
They called an anesthesiologist (good at finding veins). She tried to insert an intravenous line after all. Twice. Didn't work. Kalle wasn't allowed to eat anything during the whole procedure.
After 2,5 hours of waiting and trying to get enough blood we went home. Without any result. Just a nice visit to the hospital.

Kalle's pediatrician will talk to the endocrinologist to figure out if there are any alternatives. And if the test is so important that it really has to happen now, a.s.a.p. If so, they might need to insert the intravenous line under narcosis. Not exactly something to look forward to. Narcosis and epilepsy doesn't sound like a good combination. Narcosis always is a risk anyway. Even for healthy people.
So that was the first part of this tuesday. Oh, did I mention that our car broke down in front of the hospital? (It's fixed already, thanks to our car repair man hero who works just half a kilometer away from the hospital)


At least Kalle did a good job. He slept a lot, he was relaxed (except for the needle-moments). Even the epilepsy monster was asleep almost the whole time.

Good bye bloody tuesday.