A Lift for Caleb: Supporting His Struggles

In October 30, 2015, our youngest child, Caleb, was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. From then, life at home entered a new trajectory in which we had to radically accommodate him while also processing our own grief. He was 7 back then and he is 17 now, and going strong.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy can be hereditary, but it can also be caused by a spontaneous genetic mutation. This mutation prevents the body from producing the dystrophin protein, the same protein used to repair and build muscle. As a result, the body uses fat instead to repair the muscles, which ends up becoming a slow process where the muscles become weaker and degrade. Kids with this disease end up losing their ability to walk, followed by a steady increase in the difficulty of functioning when it comes to day-to-day activities that involve limbs and other important muscles. This eventually affects the vital organs, therefore resulting in a shorter life expectancy.

Caleb, however, has made us all proud in maintaining inspiring strength when it comes to his diagnosis. He has had large success by having various forms of treatment, including an attentive team of doctors and the usage of steroids that has slowed down the weakening of the muscles.

Unfortunately, despite Caleb going past the expected age range of when kids with this disease typically lose their ability to walk by a few years, he lost his balance and fell hard enough to completely fracture his right femur. The disease also results in brittle bones and affects the healing process; therefore, in response, he needed immediate surgery on May 10, 2024, only a day after the fracture. Thankfully, the surgery was a success through the method of using an iron rod, though with the recovery over the following months, his right leg suffered from atrophy after not using the muscle as much.

Not only has Caleb been permanently using a wheelchair since, but he also requires assistance in being moved or seated anywhere. We often have to completely lift him several times a day for things as small as needing to use the bathroom or transitioning from the bed. He now weighs a total of 90 pounds, which has made carrying him taxing for all of us as every family member struggles with a physical disability of some kind, including arthritis and the degradation of his mother's spine, which led her to receiving a spinal fusion surgery recently.

So to accommodate this, we are asking all of you to help donate in order to fund a patient ceiling lift for him. This involves a set of tracks being attached to the ceilings within the home and having an attached motor move the lift across this. This results in no more strenuous lifting for our family and takes a lot less weight off of our shoulders, including Caleb's, as he mourns his continuous loss of independence. Any contribution helps, and we ask you all to consider donating to this campaign in order to improve all of our quality of life as well as preventing another one of us needing medical attention from the continuous lifting.