When Deno was 3 years old and Dianne was beginning to walk, I would look at Deno and wonder why he was so small. For some reason I believed his sister was growing faster than he was. At the age of 4, Deno was the same size as his sister and at the age of 6 his sister stood 3 ½ inches taller than Deno. 

We did not have a growth chart on Deno. His growth failure was only visible and by then my concerns about his growth were correct. We were referred to a pediatric endocrinologist and the testing began to determine why he was not growing normally. 

After about 6 months of different tests, the doctors determined that Deno was hypopituitary, a term I knew nothing about. They explained he was thyroid deficient and growth hormone deficient. The thyroid deficiency was much easier to understand, but the growth hormone deficiency was a complete puzzle to me. What was more difficult to understand were the injections needed for growth hormone and my inability to give my child shots. What was even worse is that without therapy Deno would have never reached 4 feet tall, full adult height! 

Treatment started with thyroid replacement and Deno began to grow more than usual, but not enough. Growth hormone injections were introduced about 6 months later and something I was not looking forward to. I was shown how to administer the injections but was totally frightened. Just the thought of giving injections to my child scared me. The first night was one of the worst nights of my life. I knew I had to do it, but I trembled at just the thought. To make what was a very long night shorter, we made it through, but not without challenges and tears. But the tears were mine, not Deno's. He was a trooper and I was the scared one. 

After 1 month of injections, I finally became adjusted. At our first visit back to the endocrinologists, Deno had grown almost an inch. We were so excited that we could not wait to keep giving the shots. 

Years went by and the challenges in school were sometimes very difficult for Deno. He was always treated by his size, not his age. He was picked on by many of the kids and called names like shorty, shrimp, etc. He was denied playing many games due to his size and inability to keep up with the others. But as the years went by and he started to catch up, daily life became easier. Deno began puberty earlier than we would have wanted. This would have affected his adult height, so we opted to delay puberty and continue growth hormone. If this choice were not made Deno's adult height would have been 4' 11". For three years we delayed puberty and continued the growth hormone injections.