Taliah Gresham was born April 7, 1998 at 6lbs 6oz. All seemed ok for the first couple of months. By the time Taliah turned 4 months, we noticed something was wrong. Not only was she having stomach problems, not holding her milk, she wasn’t doing anything at all. She wasn’t holding her bottle, moving her head, not thriving. We went to doctor after doctor and the story we were getting was that all kids are different, but to us as parents, we knew something was wrong. Finally we got a doctor to take a hard look at Taliah. A gastroenterologist did an endoscopy on her and noticed she was suffering from ulcers. She was put on special formula and a feeding tube was inserted into her stomach at that time. At 9 months of age, she was seen by a neurologist. At that time Taliah was diagnosed with mild Cerebral Palsy. 18 months later the diagnosis was changed from mild to spastic. We were told she would never walk by several orthopedic specialists.
Taliah started using a power wheelchair at age 5 in which she used until age 9. In July of 2007, a doctor at Shiners’ hospital did bilateral quad lengthening of the hamstrings and her Achilles tendons lengthened. In November 2007, she went through weeks of intensive therapy where she tried out arm crutches. She is a very determined child and in 6 months she was walking with them, without assistance. It was like a miracle. Her Physiatrist couldn’t believe the progress she had made.
Taliah is a very happy go lucky child, she never complains about her physical disability. She looks forward to therapies which she has twice a week in school and twice a week in private sessions. She does these therapies in the hopes of learning something new and to one day be walking on her own. She is willing to try anything and everything, in school she’s a straight A student also involved in the gifted and talented program, she doesn’t let limitations hold her back from anything, you put it in front of her she will try it.
She’s very creative, loves to read and write, please visit her webpage at www.taliah-1stepatatime.com. This will give you more insight into who Taliah really is and how she has embraced her limitations.