CP?

If you were to see Cale in a photo you would never know he has a disability.  Wow, I'm not sure I've ever labeled my son as having a disability until just now.  I've thought about it but I've never said it out loud or written it in words.  My heart races thinking about it.  Cerebral palsy, or CP, is the closest thing any doctor or specialist has been able to label Cale with.  Cale has had an MRI, seen two neurologists, a geneticist, and still no one can clearly diagnose him.  His MRI came back normal which is GREAT - no visible brain damage!  Both of the neurologists say he displays symptoms similar to CP but there's just something about Cale that doesn't fit that label.  The geneticist said whatever Cale has is probably not genetic, which was good news since I was pregnant with Riley when we saw him.  Phew!  As of this very moment, Cale is the way he is and there's no clear reason why.  Some say it could be due to the fact that he was premature and others say he would be like this even if he came on time.  A mystery indeed.  

At two years of age Cale cannot do a lot of things that a normal two-year old can do.  He can't yet walk, talk, or eat solid foods.  He wasn't able to sit up on his own until he was about fourteen months old and he didn't learn to crawl until he was seventeen months old.  His fine motor skills, like stacking blocks or pinching things with his fingers, are still behind.  In a nutshell, Cale has the physical ability to do anything but it's getting his brain to deliver those messages to his body that is the problem.  

So what do we as a family do to help him?  Well, Cale has been in physical therapy for a little over a year now.  I often get asked what Cale does during this process and the best way to put it is that he basically just plays.  Paula, our physical therapist, comes to our house twice a week and teaches him things like how to crawl up stairs, how to cruise around on furniture, how to squat when he wants to bend down to play with something, etc.  Things that come naturally to almost every child is what Cale needs to be taught.  Slowly but surely we are making great gains!  Cale has also been in speech therapy for the last month.  Ugh, this is probably the most dreaded of all therapies!  We aren't quite yet working on his actual speech but mostly on his eating.  Cale really wants to eat the foods we are eating but he can't figure out how to move his tongue in a way that would get the food swallowed.  Cale really does not like this time of day but in the last few weeks we have seen some progress which has made things a bit more enjoyable.  His speech therapist also comes to our home which is a huge blessing.  I cannot imagine what I would do if we had to go somewhere for all of his therapy sessions!  

So that's a brief summary of what Cale struggles with and what we're doing about it.  It sounds like Cale can't do much for himself but you would be surprised at how determined our little guy is.