when my worlds collide questions emerge

How important is it to be 5′3???  I of all people should have an answer. I am sort of walking medical mystery. A dwarf in terms of genetics who never fell off the growth curve. My family with its hybrid of medicine and religion has its theories, as do the physicians.  I grew up being told I would be some where around 4 and half feet. Being little was not a scary concept for me, I had friends who were little. I realize as always my bias.

Today I met someone who has another genetic variation far more common than mine, she has one X chromosome (Turner’s Syndrome for the medically inclined). She is of short stature and is now on growth hormone shots once a day. She hates them. (she is quite young) and they might not even work. In the back of my mind, the part that has existed before the medical school brainwashing, I said why are we doing this???  What is so terrible about being little? I mean it has its social challenges but medically there is not much we are fixing.  Dont get me wrong the social challenges are REAL, I consul teens with the SED/KNIEST group about it. But the same voice in my mind shouted some of the social challenges are societal…classic medical model thinking.  It wasn’t so much that I disagreed with the decision as it was I disagreed with the absoluteness of it. Growth Hormone is what you do for THIS.  THIS is obviously a disease, a medical problem.   A medical problem according to whom?  Turner’s itself has some other complications that I would classify as PROBLEMS but short stature I think of as variation. Injections of growth hormone every day is not entirely a benign procedure physically, risk wise and psychologically. Is it worth it?

Would I have taken it if I had the choice? The answer is probaly not but it was because I was brainwashed to believe that height was not important.  Its all about perspective.

What if the biggest enemy in the exam room is not the so called disease but our perception of it?

yeah we all see why medical school is problematic for me at times.