Help Luca Pay for Hydrotherapy

Luca is almost six years old and has an array of very complex medical conditions which overlap to cause symptoms that few people seem to truly understand and appreciate. He has been diagnosed with ADHD, ASD, Severe Anxiety, Depression, has constant gait issues, Incontinence, a sleep impairment, RAD, MRI spine showing hydromyelia from C6 extending to the clonus, a hand tremor, and now Friedreich's Ataxia. Luca’s capacity to walk has been assessed as being equivalent to a 14month old child. At the age of 5 years old the paediatrician has said that she is unsure as to how he is not in a wheel chair as the muscle tone he has would normally be that of a child in a wheelchair at his age.

Luca’s poor muscle tone means he has a lot of difficulty with walking and consequently trips constantly. He often has bruises all over his body and he can not maintain weight, fluctuating  despite efforts to increase this. Luca’s complex needs and conditions require him take a lot of medication and will require him to do physiotherapy for life. Luca has a history of seizures and recently he also has become having muscle spasms and severe pain and tingling in his legs.

With the complex nature of Luca’s development and subsequent medical intervention (appointments and phone calls), time constraints do not allow anytime for me to return to work. Our family also require a significant amount of professional and emotional support in dealing with the ‘daily grind’ of caring for Luca. My other son asthma we are already trying to support and medicate his needs along with Luca.

Luca sees numerous specialists, he had a major hoarding problem caused by anxiety and constant picking of the fingers. He will require a lot of sensory products. He tends to think his best friend is a spider. He has a very high fear threshold and holds his body very tightly. He also has speech issues of which hes seeing a speech therapist for.

We would be very greatful for any donations we could have to help Luca attend his Hydrotherapy sessions. He enjoys spending time in water and Hydrotherapy will help him to retain his muscles, eliminate pain, and give Luca the opportunity to not only have fun but to help us to help him on his mental focus and control issues. We are trying to raise money for lessons this is the start to helping him build up his body strength.

What is Hydrotherapy?
Physiotherapy in a pool environment, which helps to reduce muscle spasm and increase flexability, assists with pain reduction, allows weight bearing and balance training, allows targeted strengthening, and gives child of all abilities the freedom of movement.

Any assistance for Luca, would be greatly appreciated not only by Luca but our whole family. We find that when Luca is functioning better, our family functions better.

Thank you!

Big thank you to Aqualin Massage and Beauty in Helensvale for helping promote Luca.