Gainesville —
A local boy and girl, both students headed for Lee Elementary School in the fall, share a friendship bound by care.
“Whenever I’m in a bad mood, I like to help him,” said Katelyn Gregg, age 9. “Because it just seems like whenever I help him, I’m really happy.”
During days both in and out of school, Gregg serves as an aide and guide for Caleb Lane, 9, of Gainesville, who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy in late 2008.
He walks with difficulty and cannot ride a bicycle, and uses a wheelchair night and day. He also needs help with sitting, standing and climbing stairs.
“My head always hurts,” Caleb Lane said, adding that he suffers leg pain.
Mother Leeann Lane said Caleb gets help from his immediate family during the summer, and she credited the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) extensively for its information and resources, plus its help in securing Caleb’s $5,000 wheelchair, later funded by Medicaid.
“I did not realize just how big a world it really was out there, helped by MDA,” she said.
But when in school, Caleb has a constant need for someone to push him around, bring him toys and food, run errands and notify adult help when he falls or gets hurt.
To this end, Katelyn Gregg walks by his side.
“I like to help him,” she said Thursday. “When I first met him, I thought he was normal. But when I started noticing, I just knew he had to get some help. And my teacher knows and the entire class knows. And she gave me a job to help him every day, just pushing him around.
“But there’s also times when I let other people help him,” Gregg added. “If he wants that? Yeah, he can have it.”
Caleb Lane was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 5, while attending Edison Elementary School. Medical tests became necessary after both his mother and school employees noticed he was having difficulty climbing stairs and boarding his school bus.
At the start, his manner of exhibiting symptoms was misleading, Leeann Lane admitted. She spent six months trying to teach Caleb to ride a bicycle and saw how much trouble he had steering it.
He also repeatedly fell over on the bicycle, though this may have been caused by defective training wheels.
“We just assumed he was just a late bloomer,” she said. “And finally, when we got him tested, they explained to us he wouldn’t be able to do those things.”
Early tests on Caleb showed unusually high levels of the creatine kinase enzyme, indicating muscular failure. From that abnormal blood sampling marker, doctors tested further and delivered a diagnosis of muscular dystrophy on Dec. 5, 2008. Since then, the Lane family has relied heavily on the MDA for input and advice — and participated in Thursday’s annual MDA fundraiser at Gainesville’s Applebee’s Bar & Grill, which poised to raise $10,000 locally and send children such as Caleb to a special MDA activities camp.
But muscular dystrophy patients, especially young ones, also need the help money can’t buy. Katelyn Gregg said she’s sure of the positive role she plays in Caleb Lane’s life, walking with him at school and making sure he isn’t hurt, watching for nearly all his needs.
This fall, the children will begin the fourth grade together.
“There are some times when he gets cranky, but I don’t mind it,” Gregg said Thursday. “I think that he likes us, is what I think. And that’s the only thing I want to do in my life, is help him.”
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Related Photos
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Katelyn Gregg (left), age 9, spends as much time as possible helping muscular dystrophy patient Caleb Lane, also age 9 — and a fellow Gainesville ISD student. Lane was diagnosed in late 2008, and frequently uses a wheelchair, and Gregg has become a sort of aide and guide for him while at school. Staff photo by Greg Russell
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Young classmate helps fellow student
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