Lucas Camilo

Today marks one-year since Lucas was rushed to the hospital and had to be resuscitated.  Last November 17th was a very scary day to say the least. (you can read a series of posts we wrote about the incident here.)

We are regularly filled with gratitude for all the people who surround us and help us raise Lucas.  Family and so many friends.  The online support of other families with disability.  Three preschool teachers, two bus drivers, and one music teacher.  Three dedicated home-care nurses.  Two amazing orthopedists.  Three occupational therapists, two speech therapists, and a physical therapist who does the work of seven. (And a partridge in a pear tree…)  But today we feel so deeply indebted to the firefighters and medics who responded to that 911 call on the afternoon of November 17, 2012.

So this morning we decided to take a trip to our our neighborhood fire station.  We had the amazing luck of finding that three of the four men on duty this morning were the same guys who came and helped Lucas a year ago.  Together with medics they cleared Lucas’s airway and restored circulation of oxygen, performed CPR, stabilized him enough to get him into an ambulance, and then kept his heart going when it threatened to stop on the way to the hospital.

It’s a bit beyond words to try to thank the people who helped save your child’s life.  But they definitely understood why we were there, and they seemed genuinely excited to meet Lucas again under such different circumstances.  Although Lucas had little patience with us talking about why we were going to the fire station, once we got there he was more outgoing than he usually is with strangers.  When we got out cameras, he even showed off some of his goofy “kangaroo smiles” for the firefighters.  But never one for heaps of emotions or chit-chat, he was done with the visit after about 20 minutes.  When we said goodbye and tried to find the words to say thank you, they said that our visit was the highlight of their day.  And that Lucas is invited back any time.

Despite a bit of a cold, Lucas was very excited to go to school yesterday in costume!

Lucas had fun showing off his costume to his teachers, and during physical therapy he did some extra dinosaur spins in his power wheelchair.  He came home and got rested up before heading out for a trip around the block to trick-or-treat with the neighbors.  Since Lucas doesn’t eat candy, the whole “trick-or-treat” part of Halloween was new.  But we figured we’d give it a go, since the social interaction part of the knocking on doors could be fun for him.  We did just a couple dress rehearsals, then started with our next door neighbor.  Dave opened the door, and we all paused.  We gave the “what-do-you-say” prompt, and Lucas said, “I love you Dave!”

He eventually got the ritual down.  A box of Lemon Heads  were his favorite (“it looks like a yellow rectangle!”), since if you shake the box they double as an instrument.