A Month of Thyroid Fun

Well, actually not so fun, especially for JR. We had a bit of chaos (go figure) with JR's blood tests at the hospital. This is what happened:

*We changed pediatricians because our old one quit taking the kind of insurance we have

*Switched to new pediatrician, not so sure I like them yet...

*Had JR, gave the hospital the new pediatrician info

*MET the new pediatrician, they checked out JR and cleared him at the last min. to go home with us

*2WEEKS later, my OLD pediatrician calls me to say they have blood tests on JR, but don't have him as a patient. What gives? I explain the type of insurance we have, and the nurse says she will immediately get all the tests over to our new pediatrician.

*At this point I am VERY ANNOYED that our hospital sent the test results to the wrong place

*Also annoyed our pediatrician didn't realize they were missing all the test results for a new preemie patient. AND THEY SAID WE COULD TAKE HIM HOME. WITHOUT THE TEST RESULTS. sigh.

*I also learn from my old pediatrician that his thyroid and PKU tests were abnormal, and we MUST do something immediately or he could have severe problems, including brain damage.

*Great

*So, there is a fiasco at my new pediatricians office about where I am supposed to go and what tests to get done.

*They are reinforcing the fact I don't like them

*After a whole 4 hours of talking to different people and getting told to go to 3 different places for 2 different tests (and no one agreed), I finally had my father in law call (he is a doctor) and actually talk to the doctor.

*Finally found out we needed to go to a lab and get one test done.

*As expected, my pediatrician did not send the lab order down to the lab, so the lab people have no idea who JR is and what test he needs. So we sit there longer waiting for my pediatrician to fax the info down. Keep in mind their office is just ONE FLOOR UP from the lab and it took me a good 45 min to get to the hospital lab. So in 45 min they could not fax down a lab order. NICE. So I am entertaining a toddler and a preemie around a bunch of sick people, and anyone that knows me knows I am a bit of a germ-a-phobe- so, yes, I was going crazy with the hand sanitizer every time Little Dude touched and/or tried to eat/chew on something.

So for the past two weeks, poor JR has been getting pricked and prodded every few days to check his test results. His PKU came back again normal, but sadly his thyroid does not feel like working at the levels the doctors think it should. SOOOOOOOOOOO we went back again yesterday and should find out today if this time the results are in the normal range. Why so many tests? Because at each test the number got closer and closer to normal, so it made sense to just keep checking.

However, if this test result is still above normal, then we will start some hormone replacement therapy for JR. I honestly do not know what that entails, but hopefully we wont have to deal with it. He was so close to normal last time, that I am certain he will be normal this time. And on top of it, his weight and activity level are increasing at a good rate normal with his age as a preemie, so I really think all is well.