A Look at Luca

We have said goodbye to our little Mia, who is now in the care of my parents in Pennsylvania, and we are on our flight to Wichita, KS.  We have been awaiting this return to the Hansa Center since the day we left it in May.  Bella, my 9-year-old daughter, and I experienced such amazing progress during those two weeks of treatment, and we developed such great relationships with the caring people there.

This past week has dealt me some personal health challenges, but I don't want to get into all of that just yet.  Let's just say that Monday can't come soon enough for me.  Now it is Luca's turn to begin the healing process, and we are confident that he will leave Lyme Disease in the dust after his treatment week at Hansa.

Since my previous posts have all focused on Bella and me, I thought that I should introduce Luca to those of you reading who don't know him :)

Luca is my 7-year-old prince.  He is the middle child, and certainly has many "middle child" attributes.  He is quiet, and sort of just mixes into the family background most of the time.  He has a sweet, tender heart, and an old soul.  His brain is constantly at work - you can see it just by looking at him.  And every now and then (or maybe for his teachers at school - more often) - he will spout off a fact or two that will give you a glimpse of just what is going on in his head at the moment.  Most of the time when this happens, Keith and I will look at each other with a knowing glance, and the unspoken words that we can't believe what he just said are exchanged as we are in awe of how his little mind works.  

It was his uniqueness that set him apart at a very young age.  Luca had an interesting first 2 years of life.  When I was pregnant with him, Luca got settled deep into my pelvic bones pretty early on, and when he was born, his cranial bones were malformed.  He also had torticollis in his neck, meaning that the muscles on one side of his neck were in constant tension, pulling the bones to continue to form asymmetrically.  When he was four months old, Luca was diagnosed with brachycephaly and plagiocephaly.  For this, he wore a cranial remolding helmet 24/7 until he was more than one year-old.  

I have these great pictures of our little stunt man in his helmet and arm cast, because during his early walking stage, he decided to try to pull himself up on a sofa table - which he actually pulled down on top of his little right hand, smashing it between the table and our hardwood floor.  He broke 3 bones in his hand that day.  And I could just feel the stares of everyone around us after that - as my little boy now had to trudge on through with his helmet AND and cast!  We lived in San Diego then, and were thousands of miles from any family.  Those were challenging times.

Luca also decided that he wasn't going to speak - at all - for the first two years of his life.  We couldn't even get him to utter an animal sound.  It was at this point that we began to be concerned about some of the tendencies that we had been noticing.  He was not a snuggly kid - he preferred to be by himself rather than held by us.  He was obsessed by spinning objects… car wheels, fans, etc.  We certainly thought that he was just being a boy.  But when we coupled that with his delay of speech and a severe reaction to a vaccination that he received, we had suspicions of autism in the back of our minds.  Luca began to get frustrated with everything.  He was constantly sick, and he didn't know how to communicate with us.  It was at this point that we brought sign language back to help him, and it did.  

We prayed for our child.  We prayed specific, detailed prayers for Luca.  

And then one day, he spoke.  It still brings tears to my eyes when I remember hearing him say, "mama" for the first time.  I have videos way back in the archives of this blog with his little afro reciting what sounds like a jumbly mess of the alphabet.  But he was talking.  And he had broken through the cloud that he had seemed to be in for months before that.  My little boy was back, and I am convinced that it was a miracle, and that the Lord answered our cries for our child.  We are blessed, and so is he.  

The infamous, "It's not a wizard, it's a WIZARD!" tattoo ;)

From his first words, Luca hit the ground running and didn't look back.  We always to say that he will talk to everyone and anyone.  I would find this kid having in depth conversations with the Fed Ex guy!  Now he loves to talk - once he gets to know someone - and much of the time, he talks a little too much!

We have found that Luca's mind is packed full - and he often finds the need to get some of the information out.  He is obsessed with things like volcanoes, tornadoes and hurricanes.  He plays the piano quite well for his limited exposure to lessons, and he picks up on a new piece, or even something he has heard and just wants to play, very quickly.  Luca is quite the character, and like his name implies, he is the bearer of light to our family.

Luca is the most "asymptomatic" of the three of us.  However, knowing that Lyme can be transmitted in utero, we began suspecting that Luca may also have Lyme more than a year ago when he began to complain of neck and back pain.  We did take him to the chiropractor often, and given his history of torticollis, we knew that it could have some lasting craniosacral implications for him.  Luca has pretty bad eyesight, and was given corrective glasses before he began kindergarten.  However, he began to have persistent headaches after that, and by this past winter, he was getting them almost every day.  Then he began to complain of random joint pain, particularly in his neck and shoulders.  Late last summer, Luca got terribly sick with mono, which is atypical of a healthy, 6 year-old.  

As his mother, though, the most concerning of any of his symptoms is the state of constant chaos of Luca's little mind.  During preschool and Kindergarten, I was a frequent visitor of his school's principal's office.  I think they had my number on speed dial, actually.  Luca was very challenged with self-control in the classroom.  I look back and laugh a little now at the randomness of some of his outbursts that landed him in the office.  At first, we were angry and disappointed in his behavior.  We were embarrassed and punished him for his bad choices and lack of self-control.  Throughout this time, though, we began to understand Luca a little better, and realized what a challenge it actually was for him to control himself, pay attention, and refrain from outbursts in the classroom.  Luca's mind constantly has something in the works, and sometimes, it's almost like he needs to vent the top and let a little of the pressure off.  

We were told that he had ADHD tendencies.  However, we decided not to have him evaluated for this, and we were grateful for the wonderful principal and teachers at his school who respected our wishes to work with Luca with his mind the way it was, rather than giving him mind-altering medications.  We have been persistently working with him, helping him by developing structured environments, making sure he gets plenty of sleep, encouraging him to make good choices as he exercises self control, and also giving him nutritional supplements to help him remain calm and focused for school.  Luca's behavior has improved immensely this past year, but he still struggles with these things.  I realize that many children have these challenges and beyond, requiring a much higher level of intervention.  We feel blessed that we have been able to work with Luca the way we have, and that we have been relatively successful.

Luca has also been tested for food sensitivities, and he has problems with many, including gluten, dairy, and soy.  Although he does not abstain from eating them completely, we do limit him at home.  He does not have any tangible reactions at this point, but we believe that his behavior and focus are better when he is off of gluten.  

He also severely reacts to insect bites of any sort, with huge swellings, and he will often get physically ill if he has too many bites.  

It is for all of these reasons that we had Luca tested for Lyme early this spring.  We actually got the results during my second week at Hansa, and they floored us.  Although he appears to be the most "well" among the three of us, his test was the most blatantly positive.  

But I believe those results came at just the right time.  It was by then that we were confident that the Lord had led us to Hansa as an answer to our prayers for deliverance from Lyme.  We were feeling better already, and we had hope that we just needed to get Luca there, and he would be better, too.  

So that's Luca in a tiny nutshell.  This little guy is such a special part of our family, and we are overjoyed at the relief that he will soon have from his struggle.

I will share more on Bella and me tomorrow - but I have to say that I am so excited to get back our Hansa family!  Tomorrow can't come soon enough :)