A Trip To The Endocrinologist

When Nathan was a newborn, he, like every baby, got the PKU test. The day after we got home from the hospital we got a phone call. Come back right now so they can redo the test. We came back. They wouldn't tell us what was wrong just that something was. That's always nice. We'd already done something wrong and we hardly even knew him!

The day after that, we got a phone call telling us to go see Dr. Satin-Smith, an endocrinologist. We went. She told us that Nathan had "congenital hypothyroidism". We had no idea what that was but you can bet we found out pretty damn quick. It used to be one of the leading causes of growth and mental retardation until they came out with this groovy pill called Synthroid.

Have you ever tried to get a newborn to take a pill? Especially one that's so important that if he didn't get it, he'd be a short, retarded kid with coarse, brittle hair and a thick tongue. What you do is, you cut a bigger hole in a baby bottle nipple, crush the pill and mix it with breast milk or formula and try and get him to swallow it without choking him to death in the process. Newborns don't do well with solids.

At first he went the the doctor once a week, than once a month, now once a year, and today is his appointment. He'll go in, get weighed, measured and have his skin and hair looked at. Then he gets to have a blood test to check his hormone level. If his Synthroid needs adjusting we'll get a phone call, if not we get a letter telling us his T4 and TSH levels. It couldn't be simpler, really.

Of all the things they test for with the PKU test, this is the easiest one to fix. Thank God for Dr. Satin-Smith, Thank God for Synthroid, and Thank God that we have a happy healthy son because of them. Now, I better get go dressed!