:( (This post may be TMI for some)

I consider myself pretty tough. I would say that I'm a "strong woman"...emotionally. However, when something is wrong with one of my kids I'm a nervous wreck. Each one of them has given me a run for my money and each one has had their own little health problems of some sort...nothing out of the ordinary I guess. Sammy was a very healthy baby and toddler, and then when she was about 12 she pretty much colapsed on the basketball court one day. We took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with asthma. No big deal really I guess, a lot of kids have asthma. She's ok now and we think it was from our mold-infested house we lived in at the time. Dylan, other than having a heart mumur and going to get an EKG (I think that's what it was) at the age of 2, has been really healthy. He did go through a phase this winter though that concerned us. He wasn't eating much and loosing weight and was drinking water A LOT. We suspected diabetes, but we had many, many tests done on him and he turned out fine on all of them. So, a little scare, but he's ok. Must have been just a phase?

Hailey's been through a lot too. As a toddler, she didn't grow. She wasn't thriving. She was sick with earinfections frequently, wasn't sleeping well and just was not very happy. It turned out that we figured out she was having sleep apnea and needed her tonsils and adnoids out plus have tubes put in her ears. So, at age three she went into surgery a 24 pound peanut. Six weeks later, at her last post surgery checkup she weighed in at 31 pounds and a face full of color. YAY!! Anyway, that was tough to go through. Now she's giving me much stress again:(

She had her 7 yr checkup a couple weeks ago and I usually just do these because that's what I'm supposed to do. I didn't have any health concerns with her, and I don't rely much on my doctor to walk me through child rearing. So, the checkup went great until the end when the doctor mentioned he was concerned with Hailey's "development". I though, "What? She looks like she's growing just fine now...she even may be a little big for her age. She's built like a rock, as are my other two kids, but not really "overweight" or "underweight"." No, he wasn't talking about that kind of development, he was talking about PUBERTY kind of development. Oh boy!!! Not now...she's only 7! It's not like I was oblivious to her breast development, I just thought she had gained a little extra winter weight weight (we all do!) and was carrying it there...no big deal, she would loose it when she started being more active again. Unfortunately, the doctor said this was not weight gain and that she was definately not overweight. So, we talked, and poor Hailey had no idea what we were talking about. She's never heard the word puberty before, and why would she...she's only 7 and I didn't think I would have to have this talk with her for about another two years. We went right away to have an x-ray of her wrist done to test her bone age. Apparently, if her bone age differs from her "real" age more than 6 months then there is cause for concern. This could mean a number of things, one of the scariest being a tumor on the pituitary gland. We had to wait at least a week to get that result back. Last friday I had to take her into the dr. AGAIN because she had an ear infection, and we got the results back then from the bone age scan. Luckily, her bone age said she was 7 yrs. 2 months...which was exactly right on. Her 7th birthday was in January. Whew...one hurdle over. At that appointment on friday the dr. told me they were working hard on getting the referal done up (for insurance reasons) and that he had talked to the specialist (endocrinologist)and they suspect Hailey's problem to be this, but they are not 100% certain until they see her. My doctor said that someone from Dartmoth Hitchcock (If you are from around here...that word alone when it involves any kind of health realted issue is cause for concern...it's the BIG hospital!) would be calling ASAP to set up an appointment for Hailey. Well, they called this morning, and told me that they usually book 2-3 months out, but that the Dr. had wanted Hailey seen sooner than that! Oh boy, like that's not scary! They want to see her SOON!!! So, we have an appointment on May 1st at 8 a.m. in Manchester and we need to be there a half hour early. I know she's not the first kid to have this, but this is scary stuff :(

Why us? Why Hailey?!!!

Please, I would love any well wishes, prayers, thoughts, good vibes or whatever you feel is appropriate and please be thinking of my little Hailey (and me too, I'm a nervous wreck!). I need strenght right now. Thanks.