CPF Executive Director Rachel Byrne and physical therapist, Jennifer Jezequel, PT, discuss exercise and fitness for children with Cerebral Palsy.
CPF Executive Director Rachel Byrne and Byron Lai, PhD, discuss exercise and fitness for individuals with Cerebral Palsy.
My boys were exactly the same amazing, lovable, adorable, brilliant little boys after the diagnosis, that they had been before it. The exact same.
One of the hardest moments during quarantine for me was when my apartment building announced its gym was closing to prevent the spread of coronavirus. As the outside gyms closed all around the city in the weeks prior, I felt grateful that the one in my building was open. The gym was the lasting lifeline to my sanity, and to have that yanked away from me, I felt lost.
Owen is our third baby and after a healthy pregnancy and making it to 38 weeks, I thought we would coast into life with three kids and adapt to the beautiful chaos that is life outnumbered by little ones. Somewhere in between, I ended up watching as my newborn baby was packed up into a life-flight helicopter and whisked away before I even got a chance to hold him. I would do whatever it took to get to Owen at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, I would will him from hundreds of miles away to hang on, to fight long enough for me to get there – and then we could do “whatever it took” together.
What we learned from our defensive lifestyle is that it’s normal to feel this way. It is a lot of information to process all at once and it’s an emotional rollercoaster immediately following a CP diagnosis. We realized that our diagnosis wasn’t what defined our child. She is an amazing little girl who is full of personality, she isn’t a fragile flower that needs to be sheltered, and by realizing this we were able to go on the offensive, and attack the challenges head on.