I was actually talking to someone the other day about something that happened to my son, well twice. His sister pushed him. Yep knocked him right over at the park and he fell breaking his collar bone! We actually didn't know he broke it until about a week later....again there is that Mother of the Year award....Anyway we did finally figure it out, he had a sling, all was well....except that he brought it up about a thousand times to rub it in to both his sister who caused it, and his parents who missed it. Nice.
Then there was the second time...same collar bone, same cause....sister. This time they were "playing" on the bed. One nice little shove and off he went. He didn't get his hands down quick enough, fell on his head and....shoulder. This time, perhaps out of guilt, I paid more attention. It was however more obvious. A nice little lump right on the bone that wasn't there before.....ewwww.
So off we went to the walk in clinic, (because these things never happen during regular Doctor office hours.) Well this is where it started to get interesting for me. We were seen by a Physician's Assistant. Quite a nice young fellow who started asking my son about what had happened. This launched my son into stories of the first time this occurred, rather than what had just happened. I stoped the "history of sister abuse as told by my son", and redirected the conversation. The next question he asked was if it hurt. Well I jumped right in knowing that my son has a very skewed sense of pain. I am not sure if all Asperger's people are like this, but it either hurts way more than it should or not at all. As I was explaining to the P.A about how my son is I said, "Well he isn't very good at pain. He has Aspergers, so his perception of pain is a little....off."
The P.A actually said to me, "What is that?"
I was shocked, appalled and a little sad. Here is a medical professional in the year 2009 that didn't know what Aspergers was! How can that be? Once I clarified and explained that it is a form of Autism, I had already lost my faith in this person. Luckily for us he sent us to the E.R for further evaluation. For some reason he was nervous treating my son, who had surgery to decompress a cyst in his brain, (something else he seemed confused about) when my son had also hit his head.
I remember thinking, it is not his head! It's his shoulder! UGH! But I guess it is better to be safe than sorry, so off to the ER went went....sigh.
We were taken right back, (thankfully since our ER has lately started to look like L.A County general) The doctor that saw him was a physician I had worked with back in the day....when I got paid for what I do....I digress, so I felt we were finally in good hands. He agreed the "head injury" part of the story was not important and focused on my son's bulging clavicle. He x-ray'd, slinged us and sent us on our way, with a nice referral to an orthopedist. (Who later confirmed a hairline fracture where it had been broken before)
All of this left me perplexed. How could someone not know what Aspergers was? Really. I mean this was someone in the medical profession for goodness sake.
We just assume that doctors know everything, and for that matter we assume anyone who works for doctors know everything. I remember the secretaries at doctor offices that I worked for, who would be answering medical questions over the phone....yikes!
Later at the college based autism clinic where my son goes to learn to be.....well just to be, I was told about a program where they have parents go forth in the community to impart knowledge about autism. Wow. Sign me up. It turns out we would be talking to cadets in the police academy. This sounded important. I mean really, who more needs to know about this than our police? (besides of course our medical professionals, but hey you have to start somewhere....)
So off I went with a friend of mine to explain what our lives were like, and what they could expect if they came in contact with someone who has Autism. My son is a great learning tool for people because you really don't know there is anything going on with him, until you spend sometime with him. Or I guess if there was a stressful event, like an accident or mommy getting pulled over for speeding...(not that I do this....okay maybe once I was pulled over with my son in the car....ooops)
So these cadets listened and learned and we as parents learned as well. It was wonderful and is something that I hope to continue doing. I can only imagine what an officer would think seeing someone standing in a filed flapping their arms or spinning in circles....drugs. That is what they would think....that kid is on drugs. I am fearful that if my son said or did something weird, (trust me this happens frequently) he would be hit with a taser! Or worse.
Since I began the program I make a point of talking to my son about what he should do and should, for sure NOT do if we ever have an emergency. Really isn't this something all parents should do? I was told a story once about a child who was hit by a car on the freeway because they got out of the car to head back to the patrol car to see what was happening to mom. This is horrifying. We need to educate our children and anyone they come in contact with. Everyone, not just parents of special needs children. Most people do not like to talk about things like that with their kids. why upset them? Well I think of it as giving them information that I hope they will never need. I want my kids to be prepared. More importantly I would like the people in his world to be prepared, and educated. One in every 150 kids is diagnosed with some form of Autism. Get with the program people.....
Learn about this, chances are someone you know has this....
No comments:
Post a Comment