Autism: Deal With It! 2007-2008 Cliff Notes

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

It's the night before the test on A Tale of Two Cities and the opening line of the book is as far as you have gotten? Time for Cliff Notes! Ah yes, the beautiful yellow pamphlets that manage to turn a 400 page novel into 25 pages of story line.

It is in that time saving venue that I bring you the Cliff Notes (note: this is not a product of the Cliff Notes brand) version of what has happened between June of 2007 and now.

My wife was correct in her belief that Connor would eventually outgrow the fear of diseases and stop the spitting. +1 Point for her!

There have been several actions that Connor has started and stopped over the time period, but nothing of special note.

One dramatic change is that Connor and Aiden are now both taking medications to help with their anxiety issues. I will talk more about this item in a future blog post, as there is lots to say on this point.

As for me, in September of 2007 I changed jobs from being the Telecommunications guy to the manager of Security and Emergency Preparedness for my hospital. Look for a future blog post on this and how the changes have impacted me.

Lastly, if you have ever wondered about me (well, even if you have not wondered you are about to find out) and what types of things I obsess over, then let me tell you... my number one perseveration is the natural phenomenon called the tornado. Yes, those whirling winds that reach from the clouds down to the earth are ever present in my thoughts. Did I mention that there was a tornado last week about 60 miles south of where I live. Ok, so it was an EF0, but that is pretty much what we get in lovely California.

Thus ends the Cliff Notes, you are now ready to take the test! Oh, did I mention that the teacher knows everything that is included in the Cliff Notes and none of that is covered by the test? Oops!

The Return of the... blog?

It has been far (dare I say far, far) too long since I last wrote something for the Autism: Deal With It! blog. Rest assured that the lack of updates did not stem from some unfortunate event, like my running out of things to say. No, I still have a great number of things to write about. In fact I have about close to 10 different blog entries saved a drafts in my word processor, just waiting for me to finish them. Unfortunately, the problem I have run into with each and every one of them is... well... I don't know!

Without delving into some really boring self exploration or defaulting to an excuse of "writer's block" I am forced to simply leave it with... "sorry for not writing sooner."

This is really intended to be a quick little entry to announce that I am going to, once again, get back into blogging. So, stay tuned!

What’s good for the (Spruce) Goose isn’t good for the Connor

At an early age he was reclusive and had a strong fear of germs. This strong fear developed into one of the most well known cases of Mysophobia. He is Howard Hughes, inventor, aviator, billionaire, and quite possibly Autistic.

The world renowned aviator and inventor of the Spruce Goose became so encompassed by his phobia of germs that in his later years, he would seldom leave his room which he deemed as clean. When he did leave, he wore gloves on his hands and facial tissue boxes on his feet. His servers were provided with complex instructions on how to prepare his food without a (perceived) possibility of contamination.

“Will I get sick if my straw touches the table and then I drink through it?” he asked his mother for the third time since sitting down to eat. Unfortunately, this “he” I is not Howard Hughes, not Michael Jackson (another famous person with Mysophobia), nor is it Tony Shalhoub’s character Adrian Monk (from the hit series “Monk”). It was, in fact, my 7 year old Autistic son Connor.

I wish I could say that Connor’s concerns over his straw touching the table was as simple as a child being conscious of cleanliness, but it is merely the tip of a much larger iceberg. My only hope is that we are able to slow the engines and turn the rudder hard enough before this iceberg has the same tragic impact on Connor as another did on the Titanic.

Warning: Some may find the next section to be disturbing or disgusting. I know I do. So if you are easily offended, be forewarned.

I imagine that it might be helpful at this point for me to describe all of the new (having started within the last 2 months) actions Connor has started to do that are signs of Mysophobia. The most pronounced is his spitting. While spitting may seem to be the vilest and dirtiest thing possible, Connor perceives it as a way to rid his mouth of germs. It is not that he spits like a grand champion expectorator, in fact the spit just sort of dribbles out of his mouth, only to be wiped onto his shirt. In a matter of minutes, Connor can completely drench his shirt with his own saliva. Besides the wet shirts, this has caused a rather ill effect on Connor’s health, as the acids in his saliva have created sores under his lower lip.

When ever we have asked Connor about the spitting, he tells us that his mouth touched something, such as a garbage can, the floor, his feet, etc… and he is concerned that if he swallows he will get sick. I could probably understand wanting to spit if my mouth touched the floor or a garbage can. But for Connor, these things never really occurred. If we point out to him that they incident he described never occurred, he simply replies with a question of what would happen if he did do it.

Other signs of his developing Mysophobia can be seen in his recent obsession with using utensils to eat his food. While on the face of it, Connor using utensils is a good thing, it has gone to an extreme in which he refuses to eat common finger foods such as chicken nuggets without the use of utensils. When asked why, he states that his hands might be dirty from touching his pants or the table.

Connor has also become gradually more and more obsessed with washing his hands. At first, I linked this behavior to his love for water and water associated play, but in looking at the frequency and manner in which he washes his hands, it is clearly associated with his feeling dirty or germ laden.

My wife and I have a difference of opinion on the severity of this problem. I believe that this is the start of a rather debilitating downward spiral while she feels that this is simple another passing obsession of Connor’s. It is my hope that I will be shown to be wrong. For the second time since Connor’s diagnosis, we are going to look to an outside source for help in dealing with a behavior (the first was with his eating habits). I will post updates about our progress.

Oh my!

Has it really been since February? Oh my!

Well, a lot has happened since February, including a trip to Walt Disney World, a swimming pool, fear of the color blue, and germs. There is so much I have to say!

Over the next week, I will work on putting together a couple of entries about each of these items, so be ready for an onslot of posts.

Zombie Juice!

Influenza! Yes, that time of year has come to our neck of the woods when influenza, also know as the “flu”, is making the rounds. Unfortunately, this year I was the only person in my household that received the vaccine, so the rest of my family has been suffering for the past 2 weeks. This year’s strain is a rather nasty one which includes a fever, congestion, coughing, and even an upset stomach.

The path of travel started with my oldest son, Aiden. After knocking him down pretty well, it spread to my wife. As bad is it was for Aiden, it was about 5 times worse for her. The last stop on the infectious disease railway was Connor.

Connor first started to show signs of influenza late last week, I think about Friday. Overnight, it turned into a full fever. Saturday was not the best of days for anyone, as my wife and Aiden were struggling to get ahead of the evil virus and Connor was running head long into it.

Now one of the most interesting aspects of the human mind is the ability to find humor in some of the most miserable of times. Saturday was no exception to this. In the midst of it all, Connor’s nausea got the best of him and the un-natural upward flow of stomach contents associated with it played out. As I was cleaning up the mess that unfortunately comes with such an unexpected moment, Connor announced that he knew what had happened.

In particular, he stated that his orange cup was broken and needed to be thrown away. At first I was a little confused, but he continued on and clarified it for me. “My cup is broken dad, it must be dirty or something because it made me sick to my stomach!” he explained to me. I laughed to my self at the simplicity of his deduction. It was simple really, he drank from the cup and then vomited… it was cause and effect.

I tried to explain to him that the problem wasn’t the cup, but was related to the virus that was plaguing him and the other members of the family. He seemed to accept that answer after a little coaxing… or so I thought. I was proven wrong when later that day he accused my wife of replacing our water with Zombie Juice, thus causing him to vomit. My wife and I had a good laugh about that as we, once again, explained that this had nothing to do with the undead and was merely a side affect of the influenza virus.

The good news is that the family is finally shaking the last few symptoms of the virus and getting back to our daily routine of abnormality, with the addition of a new term for a drink that is less than desirable… Zombie Juice!