The appointment on Monday was packed with stuff to do and there was hardly time to eat or go to the bathroom.
We started off with kidney ultrasounds and x-rays. Everything looked good with the ultrasounds and the x-rays revealed that there was definite improvement with the bones. The bones looked much more mineralized...so this obviously makes them stronger. We were very pleased to see this.
After the x-rays we went right to the eye exam. Most of this went very smoothly until they had to dilate Cannon's eyes to be able to look at the back of his eye and optic nerve. He kicked and screamed but we eventually got the drops in. After the exam the Dr. said everything looked perfect and there was no pressure on the optic nerve. This is often a concern with HPP patients because of the early closure of the cranial sutures...but Cannon doesn't have any issues.
At this point it was time to get all of Cannon's measurements as well as give blood and urine and get his injection. We were excited to see that Cannon grew 2.2 cm. This is a huge growth spurt in only 3 months! His overall growth is over 3 cm since we started the trial. His arm span also grew about 4 cm in just the past 3 months.
Cannon's injection went ok...as did his IV insertion.
His physical therapy assessment was the last thing of the day. As we had expected...he had a number of improvements. He ran 45 feet in 5.8 seconds...which is an obvious improvement considering he couldn't even run before. He did a number of throwing, bouncing, kicking and catching tests and he did very well.
One of the biggest improvements was his jumping abilities. Check out this video of his standing long jump.
He just jumped 26.2 inches!!! And I give him a perfect 10 on sticking the landing. At the beginning of the trial...he couldn't even jump 4 inches. What a big difference.
Here is another video of Cannon trying to jump over a piece of tape that is 10 inches high.
While he doesn't clear the height...he is actually high enough...he just doesn't quite jump far enough. That means he jumped over 10 inches in the air!!! What you don't see on the video is Cannon insisting on attempting this several times. He really felt he could do it and was determined to keep trying.
Cannon was very tired after a long day and fell asleep in the cab on the way to the airport. We are home now and will head back in November for the 9 month visit.
More to come as we see more progress!
