Autism is merely a description of behaviors... social behaviors, physical behaviors, communication behaviors.
Failure to Thrive is also a description of things observable to the naked eye. Not growing and not hitting developmental milestones.
And of course, SIDS is just not being alive any more.
So why are they being thought of/treated like they are actual stand alone diseases?
There are no more a 'disease' than "Rapid Speech", "Jumping Up and Down" or "Turning Left".
We don't consider "Throwing Up" as a disease.
Doc: "Ma'am, your son has been diagnosed with "Upchucking". There is no scientific consensus on the cause of vomiting, so just take your son home and love him".
Mom: "Thank you Doctor, I am now going to poke you in the eye with the eraser end of this pencil to signify my contempt for your intellectual bankruptcy while posing as a medical healer. Now go find me a real doctor to help me figure out what is wrong with my child".
(replace vomit with autism and you now have glimpsed the 'autism mom' experience).
At least "Failure to Thrive" has a leg up, in that kids with it have a shot at getting a doc that will (after ruling out their Freudian suspicions that mom has "Munchhausen By Proxy") actually examine the child and look for a medical reason for the observable event.
SIDS and Autism? Not so much.
So... reminder to anyone in the medical community who has been taught to investigate vomiting, fever and rash, but to accept that SIDS and AUTISM just some magical thing that happens that we all have to accept, like Leap Year and Lady Ga Ga's career... please reprogram yourselves..
Vomiting, fever, rash, suddenly dying, not growing, suddenly not speaking, cessation of eye contact, constipation and diarrhea, seizures, loss of vision, hair falling out, loss of motor skills, loosing consciousness, inflammation, swollen glands, brittle bones and cough...
ARE ALL SYMPTOMS!
Treat them all the same... as worthy of medical investigation. And understand that when you put on that white coat, you made yourselves responsible to investigate disease processes in your patients. All disease processes. Even the ones caused by your own products and practices.
And when some medical authority teaches you to blow off symptoms and patient reports, tell him to go screw himself, because that is not why you got into medicine in the first place.
You did it to heal sick people.
3 comments:
I may be mistaken but I think menstruation used to be in the DSM as an illness. Hmmm women and children. Time to push the men aside for a bit and take over.
A close family member actually rumbled behind the scenes the I had Munchausen. That same weenie said I threatened him with physical violence when I said "Screw You" to him. Must be an Autism Mom thing.
There comes a time in every autism parent's life when they have to decide which "family" members are not safe, and cut ties with those who are toxic.
We have had to take that inventory to create a safe harbor for our little one to grow up in.
Sad but necessary.
It's such a simple truth, and yet it's the hardest thing to get people to understand. Nicely said, Ginger.
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