Yesterday was Emily's second stim test.

We got to the clinic at 8.45, filled out the forms and were back in the testing area just after 9am. Second time around, it felt kind of familiar, and we knew what to expect, which was good. The nurse saw that Ems was pretty nervous, so she had me sit in the recliner with her for the whole test, which was good. I was impressed that she was sensitive enough to see that Emily really needed physical contact from me. I wasn't so impressed with the way that she talked to Emmy though - she was the creepy nurse from last time, the one that refers to saline as "a bag of spit"? Eeew. And she had a whole lot of cutesy names for all her apparatus : the tourniquet was Sally Spaghetti Noodle, the vein was Wilbur, and she had to try to get him out, the IV was a straw ... Ems was highly underwhelmed. My kids just don't respond well to being patronised; they react much better to factual information. So, while she was narrating her ickle story to Ems, I was following behind with the real information - and eventually she figured out that Emily would do better if she dropped the patter and stopped treating her like a two year old. That was a relief. I liked the nurse : she was kind and thorough, and maybe her approach works really well for some very young kids - but I'm a firm believer in being truthful and factual with children, so that's what mine are used to, and respond best to.

So, anyway, for this test, what they do is set up one IV and inject insulin into it. They also have a second IV set up with a sugar-water solution, so that they can bring up the patient's blood sugar if it gets dangerously low, and they can't swallow coke of juice. While she was setting that one up, I asked her how likely it would be that she needed to use it, and she said "Oh, it almost never happens. I've been doing this for years, and it's very, very rare."

So, Ems was fine till about twenty minutes after the insulin went in. Then, as expected, she started feeling kind of sweaty and icky, because her blood sugar was plummeting. The nurse was watching her blood sugar levels really carefully, and had her start drinking her coke as soon as they dropped to a certain level. Ems was doing okay with the her first few sips of coke, but then I got really freaked out when, a second or two later, she kind of slumped over, couldn't drink, couldn't respond to questions ... it was scary. The nurse got the sugar-water IV flowing, and within a few minutes Emily's colour returned, she could respond to questions, and she sat up. Sheesh it was scary while it lasted though. She felt pretty grim for the next while : it's very hard on the body to deal with sugar swings like that. Her blood sugar levels went all the way down to 22, and then all the way back up to 249. People just aren't meant to do that. As I understand it, the stress of the blood sugar swing prompts the release of hormones, including growth hormone. The rest of the test was no big deal : she got to eat a snack, and eventually was back to a sort-of-normal feeling.

I had asked earlier whether she'd feel a bit wobbly for the rest of the day, as she had after the first stim test, and the nurse had said that she should be just fine, and that we needn't restrict activities at all - no need to skip gymnastics, for instance. But in the event, Ems felt weak and vaguely yucky for the rest of the day. Didn't even want to go to gymnastics - and she loves gymnastics.

So we took it easy. I fetched Sophie from Bobby's work (where, once again, she'd been amazingly well-behaved - I cannot understand why she doesn't get bored, sitting at his desk reading her book, but she loves it) and the girls and I went to see Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. We were the only people in the theatre, which was pretty cool, as Sophie was able to sing and dance along with the movie. I was a bit disconcerted to realise that she knew all the words to the theme song. She's supposed to be six, not sixteen! The movie was just as lame as I'd expected, but Emily loved it, which was the point.

So now we wait to hear the results. They should be back in a week or ten days. And then we have an appointment with the ped. endo. on the 16th. A friend I met at the homeschool group advised me to ask the nurses for a copy of all the previous test results (she's in the throes of some horrible medical stuff with her son) and that was really good advice, because I could take them home and study them thoroughly. The results from the first stim test do indeed show that she is "officially" growth-hormone deficient : all the readings were well below the cut-off; only one was anywhere remotely near it. And her IGF-1 readings were low too. The commentary on her pituitary MRI also said there were indications of abnormal pituitary function ... so, if this stim test comes back with similar results to the first one, we shouldn't have a problem getting treatment approved by the insurance. However, we have no idea how much of the cost they'll cover. I have a sick feeling about this insurance : I guess I should call them, because none of the payments we've made - including the $2600 for the MRI - have yet shown up against our deductible. And I know there are huge medical bills rolling our way : both the ortho. and the endo. have taken the route of billing Lifewise who will then, I assume bill us. God that's going to be fun. I can't even imagine how much this will all cost. And reading about the many and varied insurance woes that people on my growth-disorder list are going through does nothing to reassure me. Health care here really is a disaster.