Katie's Thyroid

I'm sure many of you have heard about this, but I'm going to post it all here, so I don't have to keep trying to explain things over and over. I'm not sure I understand everything, but here it goes.

Last Monday I got a call from Jeff's Mom, Cathy saying that she had noticed a swelling in Katie's neck. I didn't think much of it, but I checked her out after school, and she did indeed have a large swelling in her neck. This picture kind of shows it.



I called the doctor as soon as I could and got her in for an appointment on Tuesday. After checking her out, they sent us to get a blood test. They told me I'd get the results the next day. Of course the next day I was going out of town to attend Women's Conference so I told them to call Jeff. So naturally, Jeff calls me on my way to the airport to tell me that the doctor had called and Katie's thyroid wasn't functioning. We had to take her in for additional tests. What a time to be leaving town!!! I didn't sleep well that night I can tell you.

While I was gone, on Thursday, Cathy took Katie to the doctor's office and for additional blood tests. There we found out that Katie's thyroid is working, but under producing. The additional blood test was to figure out why.

Here's the technical info. If you don't want to read all of this, then skip to the next paragraph. The brain secretes a Thyroid Stimulating hormone to the thyroid gland, which then secretes enough Thyroid hormone to meet the body's needs. When it is producing the proper amount of Thyroid hormone, the thyroid sends a message back to the brain saying the proper balance has been met. If the thyroid is not producing enough hormone, it sends a message back to the brain telling the brain that. The brain then sends more thyroid stimulating hormone to get the thyroid to produce more. In Katie's case, the thyroid has been under producing, so the brain has been getting that message and producing more thyroid stimulating hormone. This is causing her thyroid to grow. (Thank you Cathy for writing all this down for me since I couldn't be there.)

Today I went to an endocrinologist at Children's Hospital. They checked her out and told me that Katie has an auto immune deficiency. That's what's causing the thyroid to under produce (I don't quite understand why). She says it's most likely genetic but I don't know of anyone on either mine of Jeff's side that has these issues. Anyway. The problem is easily remedied. She is taking a pill of thyroid hormone once a day. This will send the message to the brain that the thyroid is producing more hormones, so it will stop producing the thyroid stimulating hormone. The swelling should go down after that. She should also lose the puffiness in her cheeks and some color should come back to her face.

All the doctor's seem pretty shocked that she hasn't had any other symptoms (ex. sudden weight gain or loss, fatigue, lack of concentration, shaky hands.) We were able to catch the problem early before the problem was able to cause any real mischief. We feel very blessed.

Katie will be on this medication for at least a couple of years and maybe forever. Still, that's a relief. When there's something wrong with your child, you can't help but think of the worst. So we are happy. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers on our behalf.