Mikey at Camp: Part I - Exhausted ...

Usually I write about the boys directly. Today, I am writing about me more than about them.

Today, I took Mikey to an Easter Seals camp for autistic kids. This has been in the planning stages for quite a while. Mom and I have worked on getting together appropriate camp “things” – this is CABIN camping, not wilderness camping – and I have been working on social stories “How to Swim”; “How to Brush Your Teeth”; etc.

A week ago, we told Mikey about camp – actually, although we’d kept mum, he somehow figured it out already (did I tell you he was bright?). I gave him one social story last week, that summarized how the trip would go. I made several more detailed, individual stories to focus on specific things.

Yesterday, we had both boys at our house. It was a slightly off-kilter day, since we were dealing with all the last minute packing. Marc took David home, and I went over ALL the social stories with Mikey. Mikey slept at our house; although he asked to go to bed at the “usual” time (for him), he didn’t go to sleep until after 10:00 p.m.

Mikey was first up this morning – before 6 a.m. by just a little. We had to get up anyhow; Grandpa showered and I gave Mikey his “first” breakfast – Gorilla Crunch Munch with milk (a couple of bowls) and fried eggs. He found .” the home-made biscotti Mom sent and ate one. We packed up the car and drove to the airport.

When we passed Long Beach Airport on the way to LAX, Mikey said, “Airport.” We explained we were going to a different airport and he was OK with that. We are travelling on American Airlines – I have Platinum status from business travel – and, although we were travelling on a regional jet, I managed to snag two first-class upgrades for the outbound flight (am keeping various body parts crossed in hope that luck repeats on the return).

We got a notice with our boarding passes that they are doing construction at T4 and that PriorityAAccess was moved – the airport was its usual crowded, and we got to the right area – very well marked – pretty well. I curb checked the three bags – a small one for me, a bigger one for Mikey, and one for camping gear (sleeping bag, sheets, towels, etc.). Mikey has a large canvas bag, for stuffed animals; I had my Disney purse and my roller on. I had his Gameboy (which he did not use) and a DVD player, which we bought yesterday. We showed him how to use it; Mom made a copy of his favorite Little Bear tape and Grandma brought Lion King which has an activities disc with it.

Security – TSA was extraordinarily nice! One agent pushed our bags though for us and the one at the screening gate kinda held on to him – I sent him first – and got us through quickly. Mikey behaved while I bought us a bottle of water and then made a separate stop for gum (to make sure I had small bills).

We had to take a shuttle to the regional carrier terminal – this was NOT something we had planned, but he followed directions. Other than trying to go through things before agents OK them, he was good. I have to pause and say our timing overall was very good – the waits we had were pretty short.

In the terminal, Mikey started to get antsy about getting on the plane. I managed to calm him, and a very nice young military man in fatigues helped us as well. They called boarding. We got on the plane. He wanted to go right away, but I wrote out a checklist for the flight – wait for people to board, wait for the door to close, etc. I gave him the other two biscotti from Mom. The RJs have 3 rows of first class, 1-by-2 seats. (Originally they had me in a 1 and Mikey in the aisle of a 2; I changed that so we sat together, and put him at the window.) We finally took off. Mikey asked for the DVD player; I told him he had to wait. When it was safe, I gave it to him and he watched Little Bear for a while. The flight attendant brought juice for us. And asked about breakfast. (I had not had breakfast; I had gotten coffee.) This was fine but the service was front-to-back  she did juice and coffee first, then breakfast trays. Mikey kept asking for “breakfast please.” I had to work on him a bit to keep him calm.

Eventually he got his breakfast – a bowl of Special K with 2% milk; “YUM,” he said. A blueberry yoghurt. A banana. A bowl of strawberries and blueberries. And a banana muffin. He at his, along with my youghurt and banana muffin.

He then wanted the plane to land – we were 30-40 minutes out, I’m guessing. I countered with a bathroom break and took him to the back of the plane – there is no loo in First on a Regional Jet. He went, I took him back to his seat, told him to sit and told him Grandma needed to go. He actually sat, by himself, until I came back.

We spent the last half hour talking about landing in Denver. That was pretty dicey. I had prepped him that once we landed, we taxied, then waited for the gate/door to open; he seemed to be OK once we were on the ground. Right before we landed, the man across from me said, “He has very good communication skills.” (!!!) We talked a bit about autism and types. I guess we are lucky – some autistic kids never talk at all. He also commented on how stressful this must be for me. What a nice man!

We went to get the luggage and again, we had to take the airport shuttle to get to baggage claim – something that was not in the story – but he was OK. We had to wait a bit for baggage to come down. I have him a cheese-filled cracker and a granola bar. THEN came the hard part – 4 bags (with my carry on), my purse and the big canvas bag with stuffed animals. I got Mikey to manage 2 of the bags. The bag with the camping gear will be history after this trip – it’s handle broke.

We got to Island 4 and – luck was with us – the rental car bus pulled RIGHT up. The driver was extremely nice – and he put all the bags in. We made one other stop and Mikey tried to get off the bus; I just had to tell him, “Not yet.” We had picked up a full bus load of people and I thought it was going to be awful – I have to say, Enterprise had a fully-manned counter and were signaling people to come and get cars. Our agent, Chris, walked us to our car and loaded the luggage; went over the car and the contract; asked where I was going and provided directions – he was great. I asked him where we could go for lunch and he gave us a terrific suggestion on where to get off – right before hitting the I-70. The lady at the gate as we left double-checked on if we needed anything and asked if customer service had been good – I told her it was OUTSTANDING.

I then asked Mikey if he wanted lunch (silly me); he said, “YES!” so we took Chris’ suggestion and ended up at KFC where Mikey ate 2 pieces of chicken, a bowl of mac’n’cheese, lemonade and 3 cookies. We got in the car, and I reminded him, “One hour to camp.”

The trip for the most part went well. The camp is at 8000 feet – Denver is at a mile – so we had to climb into the mountains. At the first sight of lots of trees, Mikey wanted to go camping “in the forest” immediately. I convinced him we had a while to go to get to camp. However, about 15-20 minutes out he started getting antsy. He had a couple of outbursts – I got them under control – and had him start noticing the signs. We needed Exit 234 and we were at something like 249. I kept pointing them out. At one point he yelled, “Exit 234 please!!”

We finally got to 234. Oh. Mountains outside of Denver are REALLY BIG IN THE SUMMER. The East-bound I70 was CRAWLING. Each of the exits was staffed with peace officers directing traffic – I had to wait and then I turned the wrong way and had to turn around. OK – then I got to where the GPS said the camp was – and it WASN’T – I mistakenly started up a dirt road. I had to back down (one-car-width) and Mikey started screaming, “No camp! No camp!”

I got him somewhat calm, and asked a women – who’s job on the roadside appeared to be answering questions and directing traffic – where the Easter Seals camp was and she said, “Oh, down the road.” So we went but Mikey was still fussy – it was a couple of miles yet.

FINALLY – we saw the sign and I turned in. We drove a short bit, and a person with a clipboard met us. “Camp Horizon?” I queried.

He said, “Yes, and what is the name of your camper?”

“Michael Garcia,” I responded.

The young man said, “Yes, here he is. His counselor’s name is Spenser. Drive down here [to the left] and park and he’ll come meet you and walk you through registration.”

I barely parked when Spenser showed up. He is terrific! He immediately worked on herding Mikey. There was a child crying up at registration, and the child sounded like a baby. It’s one of the things I neglected to tell Easter Seals in advance – that Mikey has a hard time with crying babies. Spenser immediately suggested we wait a bit until, “the situation is under control.”

Spenser had read the 2-page document we put together that talked about Mikey’s issues and how to deal with them; he and I discussed them a bit more. “What do you do to help him calm down?” Spenser asked.

I thought a moment. “Opera,” I said, “Opera and symphony.”

“Great,” he said, “I love symphony. I’ll just pop in some Beethoven!”

We walked a wee bit – to keep Mikey happy – and when the crying stopped, we went to Registration. EVERYONE IS TERRIFIC HERE. The ladies at the desk took our info (and our check) and Spenser managed Mikey. I had to see the nurse, give her his meds, and we had a short discussion about Mikey. She double checked things like diet and made sure he didn’t have seizures, etc.

Spenser took Mikey to his room. I joined them. One of the things I have been telling Mikey is “ … and you will stay with Spenser; Grandma will not be here.” (Mikey has never spent any time overnight other than home and our house.) We unpacked. I gave Spenser the extra snacks for Mikey (if you read the earlier part of this you know why!) At any rate, Mikey was still antsy at this point, and I said, “I’m just going to make up his bed and you guys can go. Mikey, remember, Grandma will not be here tonight!”

“GOOD BYE, GRANDMA!” Mikey said, and started to take off with Spenser.

My parting words, yelled down the hall as they set of on a hike, were, “… and LISTEN to Spenser!”

A woman came into the room to return Mikey’s medical card (they made a copy) and I said, “I was going to make up his bed, but I brought twin-sized sheets.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, “We have extra sheets. We’ll take care of it.”

“We’ll take care of it.” In all of Bobbie’s dealings with Regional Center and school, no one has EVER said those words, I’ll wager. And if they did, I don’t think she would have the confidence in the statement that I had in this one. On the way out, one of the staff said, “Now you go an explore Colorado a bit. Don’t sit around worrying.”

I gave her a big hug – or maybe I took a big hug from her for me. I almost cried …

I am exhausted and drained in a way I have never been before. I drove the 4 miles to my hotel – and my voice was so monotonic at the desk. I came to my room and collapsed on the bed, but then I couldn’t rest. So I unpacked. And went and asked about a grocery store. And took a drive through Historic Georgetown. And got groceries. And came back here.

I am starting to feel less exhausted, but I probably will be on alert until late tonight. IF “we” get through the night, I might actually relax a little...