Even before Beth was diagnosed with autism we were going to another specialist – an endocrinologist. This man will now be referred to as the ‘too big’ doctor. Jeff Lindenmayer suggested that we took Beth to see one as she is such a tall girl and was way past the normal levels of growth on those charts that you compare them on. The too big doctor that he referred us to worked at the Children’s Hospital. It was a pain in the arse because I was pregnant with Bill at the time and Beth was a bloody nightmare toddler. We had to be at the hospital at 8am, not an easy feat when it’s peak hour. As it was a blood test Beth couldn’t have any breakfast. She loves her food and couldn’t understand why she couldn’t have any, and the trip to the hospital from here is over an hour.
Bev kindly came with me as I wasn’t feeling the best and didn’t know how I’d cope with my baby having needles stuck into her. (I always get Paul to do the immunization runs too!) We got there and they put the numbing cream Angel onto Beth’s arm. Well she had a reaction to that. Finally it went down and they had to hold her down to put the needle in her arm. It had to be kept there with a bandage as they had to draw blood every 1/2 hour. They asked if she would drink quite a lot of a horrible fluid and I said that no, she wouldn’t, did they have an alternative. They suggested that we give it a try anyway. When she spat most of it out they then kindly told me that because they weren’t sure if any of it had got in we would have to come back the next week to do it the other way! I was mighty pissed off I can tell you!
The next week off we went again. This time after all the problems with the needle Beth was expecting it to be bad so she wasn’t a happy camper. They then had to put a feeding tube down her throat to get the stuff in. Anyway, to cut a long story short they did all their tests and found nothing. I kept saying that I had uncles who are nearly 7 foot tall and even took a photo in from our recent trip to the UK. Of course we had to keep going back every six months, just to be sure.
Last year when I took Beth to see Jeff Lindenmayer he measured her and commented that again, she seemed way off the charts. He referred us again to the too big doctor so Paul took Beth there on Wednesday. She has had a huge growth spurt over the summer and has jumped several shoe sizes really quickly. I took her shoe shopping on Sunday and she’s the same size as me, size 9’s! Of course I bought her shoes that I like too. I wonder if Paul would agree if I suggest that Beth would look great in some nice leather boots. I’m allowed to spend money if it’s on the kids!
Paul called me on the way back from the hospital and he told me that Beth had nearly finished growing, she was going to be 5 ft 7. I was rapt. She’s only got about 5cm left to go. Apparently they have huge growth spurts as they hit puberty and lucky me, that’s started already. The boobs are there as well as the hair you know where. It’s scary stuff, especially as it means that her period wont be far off. Anyway, I’m just glad that she’s not going to be a giant. She’s got enough differences without being the huge girl / lady too. As she likes to jump around when excited I had to laugh when explaining to my friends at school why I’m so glad she’s not going to be big. Imagine a 6 ft something woman jumping around in excitement, she’d stand out in a crowd even more than she does now. Mind you, she doesn’t care so I guess I shouldn’t either.
