Growing Pains

 A new concern means a new doctor    

Valencia is now five years old and growing quickly, maybe a little too quickly. At her yearly check up her pediatrician noticed how fast Valencia was growing and became concerned. Not worried but just concerned, with doctors' the difference between those two words is big. I prefer the later. He requested a referral for us to go see an endocrinologist. Endocrinology is the branch of medicine concerned with endocrine glands and hormones. Off we go to another doctor with new tests. 

As a mother, or rather a person in general I've always had this fear of the unknown. I am a deep firm believer that knowledge really is power, that's one reason why I love teaching so much. I am a continuous life-long learner. The more knowledge I have about topics the more prepared I feel. It helps to ease my anxiety when new situations come up. I'll be the first person to take a deep dive into research and absorb all I can about a new topic. For example, I have a very deep rooted fear of spiders,(IYKYK) I now am very aware of how many species exist in the world (45,000) and how many of those are jumping spiders (4,000). This new found knowledge did not help my fear, shocker I know, hello 45,000! but it did allow me to be more aware of the different species thereby keeping me prepared and ultimately easing my fear level from dead on sight of spiders to just running away from them instead. Do to this research based fear I now know the most random things about the most unusual of topics. I'm a lot of fun at trivia nights, lol. This ridiculous fear aka unnecessary skill kicked in handy for this new physician.

I dove head first into what exactly endocrinology is and all possible reasons for having to see one. Since I knew her physician's concern was her growth chart, I had a feeling her condition would just be monitored. Again, knowledge is power and it helped to walk into a new visit with some background knowledge. 

The testing for the endocrinologist wasn't so bad, a blood test and an X-ray was what he needed to let us know that she has premature adrenarche. "Adrenarche is a lot like puberty; it's characterized by changes in the body as your child enters her teen years. Premature adrenarche is when these changes begin early, before age 8 for girls and age 9 for boys. It's usually nothing serious, simply your child's body maturing in its own time." Children's Hospital, 2023. Basically, her physical hormones and bones are growing faster than her actual age. So when we said she's growing fast, she literally was. This new diagnosis would have to be monitored through X-ray's every six months but that would be the extent of this treatment. New doctor added to Valencia's team ✓ and this doctor would prove to be a saving grace in the months to come, I just didn't know it yet. 

Waiting for Endocrinology