Starting GH

[Guest guest]

I've posted here a few times, but have not been a regular poster,

although I read all the posts and really appreciate all the

information. We went through the decision about GH and finally

decided to do it after agonizing over it for many months.

After finally coming to the decision, our insurance denied coverage,

but eventually overturned that decision with the help of the pharmacy

company. We received our " pen " and GH today (genotropin 0.50 mg) and

are scheduled to have a nurse come to our house on Saturday morning

to do our " training " (we live in a rural area and they actually come

out and do this instead of making us drive in to the metro area).

Here's my problem. We haven't told Abby about this yet. First,

because we wanted to make sure it was even a possibility and now

because we want to wait until a couple of days before we start so

she's not worrying about it for a long period of time. We are going

to sit down with her in a couple of days and talk to her about it. I

know she'll be happy about the good things with GH, but she really

goes ballistic when she hears anything about a shot or if we even

mention tweezers to get a splinter out. She's had bad experience

after bad experience with shots starting from when she was born and

in NICU.

Another factor is that Abby has a twin brother, Sam, who is very

vocal and outgoing while Abby tends to be very quiet and reserved.

We're trying to decide whether to have him be at a friend's house or

in his bedroom while the nurse is here for the first time or if it

would be better to have him be a part of the whole thing. I'm not

sure if it would be less stressful for her to not have him here or if

he might actually take some of the focus off her fear of needles.

Another question I have is about the injections themselves. I guess

I had convinced myself that it would be a quick, easy prick with

the " pen " . After getting the device and going through the

instructions, it seems as if we're going to have to actually poke it

into her skin before we click the button to release the dosage. Is

that the way it works? If so, that makes my concern about whether or

not she'll even tolerate it even worse.

Sorry if my questions are naïve. I appreciate any information or

advice you can give me.

Sherri D., mom to 6 year old twins Abby (RSS) and Sam (non-RSS)