Hi, my name is Samantha and I am 11 years old. I love to do art. Lately I have been getting shots every night, and you may say “why are you getting shots?” Well, I am 4’4″ tall and I feel like I am shorter than everyone. I just graduated 5th grade and I am the third-shortest in my class. One day I told my mom, “I am really short.”
She took me to a doctor’s office who helps people who are quite short, and let me tell you, the doctor is quite slow. I found out that he is an endocrinologist. He said in order to get taller I would have to do a couple of tests first. The first test was to get my blood taken four times and after each test I would have to wait 30 minutes. This is called a “timed test”. The results show that all my numbers were very low, meaning my pituitary gland, as my mom says, is “asleep.” I failed that test. Guess what? I wanted to fail the test! I wanted for my numbers to be low because I wanted to be able to qualify for medicine. If my numbers were normal, the doctor and the insurance company would say “you know what Samantha, you will grow just fine.” I didn’t pass, which is great! We found out that I have what is called “growth hormone deficiency.” This only affects my height; the length of my bones. It doesn’t affect my overall health.
The next step was getting an MRI. I have to tell you, it wasn’t pretty. I told them to put me in a wheelchair to take me to the MRI tube, but instead they put me on a bed and wheeled me with needles in my hand. My mom tried to comfort me; but I forgot who she was! (I took medicine which made me very sleepy and forget.) After the MRI was done I woke up from my nice long beauty sleep and I had “amnesia”. Amnesia is when you forget who your family and parents are or what happened to you. My mom and dad were in front of me; and I drank juice and had a Popsicle: cherry flavor. The nurse wheeled me to the car and wished me good luck. I went home and felt just fine.
The next step was to have the shots delivered and have a nurse come over and help show me how to give the shots to myself. A couple days before the nurse came over, I was a little nervous. I got through it. Robert, the nurse, arrived and he was very tall and very nice. He showed me how to practice. I was able to give my mom a shot and practice in a squishy pad. I have taken shots for 3 days now. I have to say, it has been a little hard. I have had a sleep-over on the Fourth of July and my mom’s best friend gave me the shot so when I have sleep-overs in the future she will be able to give them to me.
Tonight, I am going to give the shot to myself in my stomach. Hope it goes well. Wish me good luck!
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