Oaklie’s Intensive Gait Therapy

For those of you who do not know our youngest daughter, Oaklie Paige was born with a rare genetic disorder (Glutaric Acidemia Type 1) and at 6 months diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. The CP was discovered after new doctors noticed her hands and feet turning in, something she has been doing since birth, and ordered an MRI. The GA1 is what we thought would be her biggest hurdle, thankfully, she’s been fortunate to not have too many pitfalls from the GA1. A few close calls as her GA1 case causes her when she is ill to become hypoglycemic and those can be scary moments, especially the first one when no one including her metabolic doctors had seen a hypoglycemic state like Oaklie’s with the GA1. The CP has definitely been her biggest hurdle causing her to have developmental delays physically. She’s as smart as whip, just has difficulty moving. She currently uses a gait trainer which we were never sure she would be where she is now, but any chances for advancement we want to take, just as any parent would want. With that said, Oaklie has been given the opportunity to be one of the first participants of Good Shepherd Rehab’s new Intensive Gait Training program (it’s so new it’s currently limited to existing patients until the program gets underway and proves it’s quality). It’s a 3 hour, 3 day a week for 4 week program. The funds will help cover transportation and loss of income as I, her mother, have a lack of PTO to cover my time off and dad is self employed (no PTO). Travel from our home to Allentown is approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes. Oaklie has made amazing progress and we are hoping this propels her success. It would be amazing to see her walk and play this upcoming school year at kindergarten. She kept telling us she will walk when she is 5 years old, well, this is her year then.