I Climb For Juli...

Those who know me, know that my daughter, Juliana, has faced some difficulties in her 6 years with us.  They started at birth with her VSD heart defect, then she refused to eat, followed with her developmental delay.  She has seen an array of specialists, all of whom have helped us in different ways.  The one I am going to highlight in this post is Dr. Gaebler at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC).

We were referred to Dr. Gaebler by Juli's GI doctor when Juli was about a year old.  Juli had noticeable weakness on her left side and her GI doctor was curious if that had any impact on why Juli didn't like to eat.  Our visits over the past 5 years have never given us insight into why Juli doesn't like to eat, but they have taken us down a different path.  I learned new lingo: AFO and UCB (the different braces/orthotics that Juli wears).

Juli's old AFO's, she has graduated to UCB's now 

We had even more tests done and were referred to different specialists from there.  Finally, this year, Dr. Gaebler was the first doctor who gave us names/diagnoses for what is going on with Juli and from there, doors continued to open.

Juli was diagnosed with Developmental Coordination Disorder along with Sensory Processing Disorder by Dr. Gaebler.  From there, our Developmental Pediatrician tested Juli and she tested high for anxiety (which broke my heart to hear that my 6 year old has anxiety, but it explained so much) and inattentive ADHD.  She will never outgrow Developmental Coordination Disorder and it will make learning difficult for her.  To help with this, we have added Occupational Therapy outside of the school (she already receives it during school). With the Sensory Processing Disorder, she is learning to handle it in her OT sessions.  Her screaming episodes where she becomes overwhelmed and doesn't know how to process are decreasing, although now she will "shut down" in order to shut out all of the sensory information.

Why am I telling you all of this?  Because on November 8th, I am participating in the SkyRise Chicago Tower Up Climb benefiting the RIC.  Juli asked me to do the climb, and how could I say no to this face?

So, I need to raise $150 in order to climb the 103 flights of stairs, and I am hoping some of you will sponsor me.  I want to make this little girl proud of her mom.

**If you click on the words "sponsor me" it will take you to my page.  I am overwhelmed already by those who have donated. Thank you so much!**