Sri Lanka

On Friday January 23rd, Nishantha Sandakelum and I, along with the children from Tangalle and their parents, made a trip to Ruhuna Medical College for the children’s comprehensive physicals. These assessments track the growth of the children enrolled in the long term Human Growth Hormone treatment program.

Madumekala is entering her third year of treatment and it has been suggested that we increase her dosage slightly to leverage her age and time remaining for treatment. She started the program at age 11 and had a bone age of 3 years old at that time. She recently turned 15 and her bone age is now 10 years.

Her height and weight were checked and recorded and our supervising physician, Prof. Sujeewa Amarasena at the University of Ruhuna in Galle, is presently determining an appropriate adjustment to her dosage.

Sachini is 18 years old, yet she has a bone age of 12 years. Because of her age she requires twice the dosage as the other children in the program. She and her parents travel to Ruhuna Medical College every 10 days for treatment. Sachini is now 137.8 cm tall and her weight is up to almost 25 kg. The importance of this treatment for her cannot be overstated. She has recently finished high school and is awaiting the results of her government exams.

Tharindu has been receiving cholesterol lowering medication for three years now and his levels remain stable. His blood profiles are reviewed every three months. Real Medicine also provides nutritional food parcels each month to support his dietary intake.