Category:History
So Just What IS Wrong with Your Son?
It’s a question I get a lot and it has a complicated answer. I usually just say autism and leave it at that. If I’m feeling generous I might say high functioning autism or even Aspergers. It’s the easiest answer, it explains why he seems “weird” to you, even if it isn’t the whole answer. …
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Bedside Manner
We spent years chasing zebras. Are you familiar with the expression? If you hear a horse, you should look for a horse—not a zebra. Don’t start with the exotic. Eventually, you rule out all of the horses and you have to start looking for something a little less common. Looking back at all of the …
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What is Normal?
This year has been the year of changes. I largely attribute that to an amazing teacher, an amazing special ed teacher, and an amazing class. The perfect storm of opportunity for him to begin to find his place in this world. People are noticing. My mom comments on it all the time. He is at …
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My Son is Allergic to ALMOST Everything
When Yoshi was a bitty baby, everyone agreed that he was allergic to everything. It was easy. (Ha! Believe me.) As he got older the doctors stopped agreeing on anything and everything was difficult. The battles between the who, what, where, and why are for another day. Eventually, we ended up at Johns Hopkins University Hospital …
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My Son is Allergic to Everything
Food allergies don’t normally count as special needs. I understand this. But Yoshi was an especially tricky customer so I always lump this part of our lives in the with the rest. And even though we knew that it all started as allergies, even though we fought like mad to fit it all into that …
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The Ninth Circle of Hell
I’m not here to give you a poetry lesson, but if you are not familiar with Dante’s Inferno, the ninth circle of hell (the deepest) was considered to house the worst punishments. According to Dante, the traitors belonged at the bottom of the well with a special place reserved specifically for treason against your family. …
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Should You Medicate?
It’s the question of the age, isn’t it? There are pills to fix just about everything now. Why not autism? (tl;dr There aren’t any pills to fix autism.) Long before I had kids of my own, I was already outspoken about how over medicated our children were. I vowed that I would not medicate my …
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The Pictures on the Walls
I tried to tell Yoshi’s story to a new friend recently. We’re getting closer and she is familiar with our current situation but completely unaware of our past. We were chatting (isn’t that lovely sometimes, just chatting with friends?) and it came up – how much she didn’t know. Once I got her fairly caught …
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How Very Wrong She Was
We ran into each other at swim lessons. I hadn’t seen her in a while, maybe a couple of years. We used to be quite close, but life gets in the way sometimes and people drift apart. We had a lot to catch up on. Her youngest, her son, was just diagnosed with autism and …
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