Changing the stupid cartridge

About every 2 weeks the meds in G-Girl's Genotropin pen run out and I need to change the cartridge. I have done this a handful of times already so you'd think I know what I'm doing. Well, I don't.

It's not as easy as it seems. Well, it is easy but there are a bunch of steps and I am still not familiar with them all. This must be a common problem because the company includes a step-by-step cartridge changing "placemat." It's pretty helpful-- if you have it. We no longer have ours because it didn't make it home from the infirmary at summer camp. I called our Pfizer Bridge representative, who was pleasant as always (no sarcasm at all, she really is nice) and a new placemat should be in the mail. In the meantime...

I botched it. Again. I got it to work reasonably well but something feels kind of off. I hate injecting my kid with a pen that I may have loaded incorrectly, but I am pretty sure that I mixed it correctly and she's still getting the correct dose. It looks like there's a lot more air in there than there should be, even though I did the remove air tap tap maneuver. Sigh. It's always something. If it's not one thing, it's another. (Credit to Roseanne Roseannadanna).

Which kind of hormones?

My daughter is 10 1/2 years old. That means she is a pre-teen. A tween. A young lady. Whatever you want to call it, lately she's been being obnoxious. Which leads me to wonder... which kind of hormones raging around in her body are to be thanked for this? Is it the Genotropin? Is in sex hormones or puberty hormones or whatever you call them? Maybe a little of both?

Maybe she's just acting this way because she is still tired from camp and missing the freedom she had there. Who knows. In either case, I'm glad she's back but could use to lose the attitude that seems to have accompanied her home.

We were shopping for new underwear the other day and I asked her if she thought she needed a bra. She asked whether I thought she needed a bra. I answered honestly, which is no, she doesn't need one at all. But if she wanted one I'd get her one. It wouldn't surprise me if sometime this year we make that leap.

She's ba-aack

Yeah, so G-girl is home and our house is back to its normal state of chaos. This means there is more mess everywhere (and I do mean everywhere), the kids are alternately fighting tooth and nail and then getting along great, there is more singing in the house (which sounds nice but Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus are not my top picks) and yes, I am back to giving daily shots.

Overall, much less traumatic/dramatic than it might be. I think the major trauma/drama was limited to the very first time. I know G-girl was nervous about having the nurse inject her at camp, but I think after the first time that became no big deal as well.

Two things that helped:
1. one of her counselors had to take meds, so they went to the infirmary together after dinner

2. (and this is a biggie) a boy 2 bunks ahead of her also got Genotropin injections. When her cartridge needed changing and the nurse was unsure of how to do it, they called him in. He helped, they did their shots together. (oy vey. That sounds like group shooting up. Anyway...) Where I was going with that is that on many levels the experience was normalized. Didn't become more pleasant, but definitely became more normal.

It still makes me sad that giving my kid shots on a daily basis is becoming normal. But I won't go there today.

Genogirl is coming home

G-Girl has been at sleepover camp for the last two weeks. For the first few days I almost missed doing the shots. Not in the classic sense of missing something, but I felt their absense. It had become something so imortant in our every day that I forced myself to always remember to do. So when she went to camp I still thought about it every day... "don't forget to do the shot."

Then I realized how much I didn't miss it. I miss my kid, but the time surrounding giving her shots is always surrounded by some level of tension and some level of fear that I am going to hurt her. Neither of those things is fun.

Then I kind of forgot about giving her shots. It was neither something I missed nor something the absence of which I welcomed. It just went back to normal.

And now she comes back today. I wonder how things will change now that she has been getting them for 2 weeks from someone else. Someone who was trained in doing things like giving shots.

Shots at camp

Breast Buds

One of the side effects of Genotropin is that it can bring on early puberty. Natasha is 10 and 4 months. She has been getting injections for almost two months. When she started the shots she was completely flat chested. Now she has the beginning of breast buds. Is this because of her age or because of the drug?

We don't see our endocrinologist again until early September, although of course I can call her before that. Natasha has grown at least an inch already, so it is not surprising that she might have grown in other ways besides height. Who knows what is going on with all these added hormones in her body. But breast buds? I'm not sure I'm ready for that.

She'll get a break

Genogirl doesn't know this yet, but she's going to get a 2-3 day break from her shots. We are going to Alaska for 2 weeks starting on Saturday, a few days of which we will spend camping in Denali National Park (assuming the weather cooperates).

I called Pfizer and explained that we'll be in the back country without access to refrigeration, and asked for advice about how to store the meds while we are camping. They said that they have no information about the stability of the drug outside the recommended 36-42 degree range.

I find this kind of strange. In fact, I doubt that they have no information about its stability outside the proscribed temperature range, given the amount of research I assume they have done on this drug. Or maybe they haven't done as much research as I would hope they would have.

So anyway, I called her endocrinologist, who basically said to leave the stuff in the fridge at my aunt's house and just not do the shots for the few days we are away. I haven't told Natasha. I wonder how she'll react. I imagine it will be a relief, but at the same time I know she is happy to be growing. I'll report back...