Ready or not, today, Obsidian is starting growth hormone therapy. Tonight, a nurse is coming to the house to do the training. He does not know this. As he is 2.5, I don't know how much he would understand if I tried to explain. I'm guessing he would understand the basics of "You will now get a shot everyday. For always." He knows what shots are as I have type 1 diabetes, so it is something that has always been part of his life. He hasn't been the one getting injections, but the idea of shots is a concept that he sees at home. He knows how a shot feels. I don't anticipate Obsidian is going to be happy about this. I don't know how much he will understand how these shots will (hopefully) help him grow big and be able to play with other kids longer before getting tired. I'm guessing he will understand more of it than we expect he does.
I'm not even vaguely concerned about the training. I've questioned myself about this, but each time I come up with the answer, nope. I don't think it will be much different than using an insulin pen. I know how to give injections on both myself and others. I've done it regularly (to both myself and others). I haven't given them to anyone who has been fighting against it. I hope I don't have to get too much experience with that. In the back of my head, I'm thinking I might get a lot of experience with that (but that is an entirely different issue than the training and the mechanics of how to give an injection).
I'm worried it won't work as hoped. I'm worried that Obsidian will be one of the unlucky ones that have one of the serious side effects (largest one being increase in intercranial pressure... partly because this is just bad, partly because Obsidian doesn't have the verbal skills to completely express the symptoms accurately as soon as they start appearing). A dislocated/broken hip would be bad as well. Then past the side effects part, I'm worried he won't start growing as hoped. There is not blood test that we can see if he is working right away. It is simply to wait 6 months to a year and see if he growth velocity has improved. I'm worried that ped. endo that we are meeting with later this month will not agree with this course of action and we will have to decide. I'm trying hard to "not barrow trouble". It is hard to not get really excited with the idea that the growth hurdle for Obsidian is about to be passed, I'm afraid of getting too excited about growth to be crushed months from now when nothing has changed. Which is obviously a possibility. Particularly since Obsidian is not a "textbook" growth hormone deficient (GHD) kid.
Whether or not if I'm mentally ready for it, today is the day. I don't think I would every be fully "ready" for this leap.
UPDATE: So training was all of 15 minutes, if that. Obsidian did alright. When he realized he was about to get a shot, he tried to grab it out of my hand and said "No want it. No. Don't" I did it, and then he stopped fussing and was smiling at me and the nurse and talking something about trains and fire engines.
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