The squirrels seem lovable again. So does my family.

Stephen is thunking and crashing on his skateboard in the garage and the sound makes me feel fondly towards him, rather than tooth-grittingly irritated.

I better roll out the multi-vitamins so we don't have a repeat of yesterday next month.

Emily's new endocrinologist, Dr C, seems both pleasant and competent. For a start, he actually read her chart before he came into the room, so he was completely au fait with her history before we began. A big improvement on Dr S, who used to dash in, papers flying, with not a clue as to to who Emily was. He explained everything in great detail (too much detail, at times : these last few months I've read up an awful lot on growth hormone deficiency). But I'd much rather he erred on that side than the other. And he gave us ample space for asking questions, listened carefully (something Dr S was never very big on), and really took his time. So, thus far, I like him very much.

Wonder what I would have thought of him yesterday?

The good news is that, by their measurements, Emily's grown just about one and a half inches and four pounds since the beginning of June. She's now at 4'4.09" and 56 pounds. Dr C is very pleased with her progress, as are we. He's increasing her dose slightly, to 1.2mg per day. I was relieved when he stressed that he's very conservative when it comes to dosage, and that she's actually still getting a dosage that's under the recommended amount. I know some parents really push for the maximum dose; we however are so anxious about the whole thing that we want the least possible intervention. So I'm glad we're on the same page with that one.

We had to do another bone age today (quick and easy; it's just an x-ray of the bones in the left hand). And Ems had to get that bloodwork done for the haemotologist. (The low white blood cell count thing). Not particularly quick, and not particularly easy. The tech was very dour and unfriendly, didn't make even the slightest effort to put Emily at her ease, and on top of that the stupid idiot didn't wait for the alcohol to dry before he stuck her with the needle, so of course it stung like crazy. You'd think if taking blood was a person's job, they'd know how to minimise discomfort for their patients. But apparently not.

I really hope that the results of this bloodwork are reassuring. I haven't even tried to research the implications if they aren't; I can't take on more worries right now. And the internet is only good for scaring yourself when it comes to making diagnoses.

Our next visit with the endo is in three months time. They wanted to schedule her for December 30, but since that's her birthday we vetoed that one. So it's January 5th.

I'm tired right now; we have to go climbing tonight though, or Em will be devastated. She and a friend got permission to set a bouldering route and they only got half-way through on Tuesday night. They plan to finish it up tonight. I got supper into the crockpot a few minutes ago so it'll be ready when we get home. I still feel quite excited every time I use one of my appliances : going without electricity during the hurricanes really made me appreciate them and it still hasn't worn off.