G’s Place

more cat pictures

kiss kiss

Originally uploaded by gminks

I love this picture of us.

Brianna is an official college graduate. I have the pictures to prove it!

This story is via Asperger Square 8

So, some guy in Canada decides to “run for autism”. He invites some autistic folks, who politely decline. Mostly because the guy publicly spoke about how autism is a terrible burden and we must find a cure!!

The autistic folks explained they couldn’t support his run because of those statements, and what response do they get?

“Haha oh sh*t” (sent from a Blackberry).

That kids needs to learn how to use email. He obviously meant to forward that message, not reply to it. But it shows how much he knows about autism, and also how much he really cares about this cause.

This seems to be the kid’s media contact:

Alex Bittner at: alex.bittner@runthedream.ca, 888-507-5885 ext. 4

Here is the main website: Run the Dream

Here is his blog 

There is a facebook group

Today is pretty nice, hopefully at least for the first part of the day tomorrow it will be nice. Brianna is being very aspie about the change - but she’s aware of it, and we’re aware of it, so we’re all trying to deal.

It’s the first time my mom has really seen how it is, so we had to explain to her that it will be ok.

Today we are going shopping. Oh joy.

We are not going anyplace exotic — I mean I personally don’t consider Albany NY exotic. But I’m off for a week and a half, we’re going to see Brianna graduate. It should be nice.

So I am watching Vh1’s Rock the 80s hour - a commercial comes on about VH1’s autism campaign.  People need to really start thinking CRITICALLY about what these cure autism campaigns are telling you:

•  All of a sudden all of these kids are being diagnosed
•  No one knows where it comes from
•  THERE IS NO CURE

So, does that mean perhaps in previous generations, autistic kids were misdiagnosed with something else? Do the kids grow out of it? Is it possible autism is genetic? Is it possible there is no cure because it’s a different way of being?

The site is actually better than the commercial - which is very horrible. We need to stop thinking in terms of a cure, and start thinking in terms of education about differences. We need the full spectrum of people in order to have a fully functioning society.

050708_20121.jpg

Originally uploaded by gminks

loves to chit chat

My dad has Polycythemia Vera (PV). It’s a form of cancer basically. It is an abnormal increase in red blood cells due to excess production of the cells by the bone marrow. It usually strikes people in their 70s (my dad is 65), and is supposedly a “rare, chronic disease“. But my dad and two of his brothers have had it (maybe the other brother had it too, but he was captured in Vietnam and he got left there when the US pulled out).

So, my dad goes to doctors down in Pensacola FL who are complaining that the insurance my dad isn’t paying them enough. UGH!! I want to go smack someone.

I think they need to come up here to Dana Farber.  My mom needs to learn how to talk to those doctors so they take her seriously. Y’all just don’t know how important class is to get services in that part of the country. I wish I could go for just one visit.

I just wish they would come up here for a little while. Before it gets cold and they wouldn’t want to come.

A study found that having a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric problems roughly doubled a child’s risk of being autistic.

OK, so is it possible that the adults who had these problems and then had autistic kids were just misdiagnosed as well? Maybe this just proves autism is genetic.

The article I linked to specifically says: “The association between a child’s autism and mental illness in the parent was strongest with schizophrenia”.

For the record, my ex-husband was diagnosed with schizophrenia.