Ian Update- Endocrinology Appointment
With the hustle and bustle of Gabby’s birthday, her party, Mother’s Day, and everything else in between that is our normal, daily life, I haven’t had the opportunity to update on Ian’s recent appointment with Endocrinology.
Another specialist we see to make sure our boy is thriving. We started seeing endo after Ian’s brain injury. Between the brain injury itself and the placement of some of Ian’s tumors, we were advised by our doctors that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start following with this specialist as well. I know in particular, one tumor isn’t right on the pituitary gland, but it’s next to it and has the potential to push up against it. The pituitary gland is responsible for our hormones, so if the tumor is pushing on it, it can cause an imbalance of hormones. And that can go either way- either making too little or too much. Each of these things comes with its own problems/symptoms.
We had some bloodwork done on Ian when we first met with them, everything coming back normal. But our recent visit with them had to do with a concern we brought up to Ian’s rehabilitation team: his weight. We noticed during a doctor’s visit the jump in Ian’s weight compared to the appointment just a couple months prior. When looking back, we discovered Ian had gained about 20 pounds in the past year. Given his mobility issues caused by the stroke, this wasn’t completely new to us- we were aware that Ian had put some pounds on, and we kind of chalked it up as it being from him not being as active as he was before his brain injury. We thought once we got him up and moving, he would start to slim down. Unfortunately, this isn’t proving to be the case. We no longer use the wheelchair at home and haven’t since last summer. We encourage Ian to walk as much as possible, and we take breaks as often as needed while also pushing him to encourage him to keep trying and to build on his muscles and his strength. So why is he retaining so much weight if he’s moving more than he previously was?
Rehabilitation didn’t really have a straight answer for us, more like a few options we could explore, but mentioned it would probably be best to check his hormone levels with endocrinology just to rule out anything medical with his tumors. What we found at this appointment is that Ian most likely has a disconnect between his brain and his stomach telling him he is full. This is supposedly common after a brain injury, but there isn’t anything to help this. We knew Ian had trouble with this, he is CONSTANTLY saying he is hungry, even when you know he shouldn’t be. We' have had to monitor the amount of food he intakes because he will eat until he is sick. (Literally, he’ll eat until he throws up.) We are double checking labs in the upcoming weeks, but they don’t feel this is going to be Ian’s issue. Normally, if it was some kind of thyroid/hormone issue, there would be additional symptoms, but Ian doesn’t have anything else that would indicate this.
So, with that, we were given the phone number to schedule with a dietician/nutritionist. (I called, still waiting for a call back, so probably need to call again.)
There’s a part of me that feels like I failed him. Am I the reason he’s borderline obese? I try to watch what he eats, I try to give him healthy choices. Our biggest issue has been veggies, but he LOVES all fruits, and I feel like his diet outside of that is pretty well balanced. But then I think if I was doing things “right” then maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation.
Just another thing added to our plate. Ian being considered obese cannot happen with all of his other medical issues. It would just make everything 10x worse. We’ve tried to be better about a lot of things- not eating out as much, home cooked meals with fresh ingredients, offering water more often, but it still wasn’t enough, and now we have to crackdown harder. Another thing, but a small adjustment to make sure Ian is healthy.
June has a couple appointments for Ian- one for bloodwork, one with neurology, one to be cleared for dental surgery, and then the dental surgery itself. But there’s also fun things we have planned for him this summer, and we’re excited to continue to help Ian heal and thrive.