The latest

Back in October, Anya had her well-child exam.  The pediatrician noticed that she was not growing at the typical rate for kids her age.  They like to see kids gain two pounds and she only gained 1.5 in the past year.  Similarly, she didn't grow as many inches as he was hoping to see.  We have been in this place before with her, when she didn't gain a single pound in over a year.  Most of that year was prior to her cancer diagnosis, yet once she was off chemo, she quickly put on a couple pounds.  What was explained to us then, and again now, is that they like to see kids follow their line on the growth charts.  Anya was steadily following the 5th percentile line.  As of October this year, she dropped down to the 2nd and 1st for height and weight respectively.

All of this led the pediatrician to order a series of blood tests.  Since the amount of blood to be drawn was significant, we waited until her MRI and the nurses drew the blood while she was under anesthesia.  A couple days after her MRI, the oncologist called with the test results, "all tests but one look perfect.  One does not."

That one test was for the chemical linked to growth hormone.  There is a normal range of 47-218, which is a large range.  Average for kids' Anya's age is 118.  Anya's is 27.  What that all means is that Anya needs to see an endocrinologist.  Her oncologist believes that this is unrelated to her Retinoblastoma.  We don't know anymore than that at present.  In the meantime, we have switched insurance and now have to have Anya see a primary physician so that she can be referred to a pediatric endocrinologist.  We are just getting those appointments made and hope to have some answers relatively soon.

Anya has always been small, and we are hoping that the answer may be as simple as that, with no other medical interventions necessary.  We thought of taking advantage of it and not buying her a ski pass this year, but we figured her big mouth would ruin that plan.  Maybe next year?