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Lucas Emmons, his story...
Lucas was born in February 7th 1991. He was born
2 1/2 months early and only weighed 3 pounds 3 ounces, he was about
the size of a chicken. There were also genetic problems. Lucas had
lots of complications when he was born. He had what was called a
severe hypospadius which would later require several surgeries to
repair. He was hypoglycemic which is low blood sugar the opposite
of a diabetic. Because he was small he could not hold his body heat
so he was in an incubator for about 2 months. His low blood sugar
required him to have his sugar checked before every feeding. He
was fed every two hours so they poked him a lot to get blood. He
also had low platelets so he had to have a blood transfusion. By
the time he came home he had been in the hospital for the first
2 1/2 months of his life. He only weighed 4 pounds 13 ounces by
then. Once home he had more hurdles to climb.
Lucas had a lot of illness and when ever he got
sick he would have to be hospitalized for failing to thrive. He
wouldn't gain weight well and when he did he would get sick and
lose it again. At one point they wanted to put in a feeding tube
but once again Lucas persevered and got through it with out taking
that course of action. He had also had to have the surgeries for
his hypostasis starting in his first year of life. There was a complication
with one of those surgeries in which he went into cardiac arrest.
His heart stopped for 45 seconds, they had to revive him with CPR
and gave him an injection into his heart. This is what his life
was like for the first 3 years. Constantly in and out of hospitals,
adding new doctors to his list, and surgeries that went beyond the
hypospadius.
By the time Lucas was 1 years old he could not sit. He was diagnosed
with cerebral palsy. He had excessive muscle tone in his arms and
legs, lack of muscle tone in his back and had some oral sensitivities
in his mouth. The doctors said that he would have to go through
physical therapy and even then it wasn't for sure that he would
ever walk or walk normal. So Lucas started physical and occupational
therapy. This therapy is to help him work on gross motor skills
(sitting, walking, balance) as well as his finer motor skills (holding
pencils, spoons ext). Lucas worked hard from 1 years of age on.
He will always have some tightness in his arms and legs.
Balance is another problem that will never go away. Lucas has made
compensations for all of these difficulties to overcome his disabilities.
His love for skate boarding, snow boarding, and wake boarding gives
him incentives to strive to be the best he can be. We have seen
how far his love for these types of activities have brought him
so far. We believe they will help him in the other areas in which
he struggles.
Lucas has also been taking piano lessons for about 4 years. He has
perfect pitch and learned by ear instead of reading sheet music.
He has composed some of his own music and would really be interested
in forming a band some day if anyone is interested e-mail us. Lucas
has a recital coming up this summer and is going to be playing the
theme from Harry Potter. Lucas has a wonderful ear for music and
likes a lot of different kinds of music. He will tell you a little
more about himself now.
I'm kind of a vert skater I do a little
street skating. my favorite kind of ramp to skate is bowls and half
pipes like I said I'm pretty much a vert skater. My favorite types
of music are classical piano rock, punk and a little metal. I've
been skating for about four years my friends say I'm pretty good.
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