Lafnalot
05-27-06, 10:05 AM
My nine year old Elizabeth has been diagnosed with AS. She went three days of almost eating nothing, stating she has a chronic stomach ache. Upon taking her to the doctors, the doctor took her aside and tried to get her to describe what it felt like when she got hungry. She struggled for about five minutes to answer finally simply saying "It feels like I have a monster in my head roaring".
There were obviously many more symptoms, but this was the scene that made it imperative for her to get a diagnosis. She didn't know what her body was saying when it was hungry, she thought she had a stomach ache every time. She was 47 pounds. She has difficulty understanding the signals her body sends her about many things, she has difficulty understanding signals other humans are giving her, she has difficulty with abstract ideas, etc., her vocabulary is good but her use of words is often quirky and slightly off kilter.
The first few days I was so sad for her. I said to someone "I always just veiwed her as quirky, odd in a good way, interesting and funny, someone who marched to her own drummer. We always though ADHD." and my wonderful friend said "She still is , now you just know the drummer"
She was placed on a cool antihistimine that has a nice side effect of increasing appetite to stretch her stomach and get her used to eating and what hungry feels like or the signals that mean 'hungry'. She weighs fifty three pounds now and her hip bones dont stick out, her skin doesnt have that pale translucent with blue veins look any more. She grew out of the length of all of her jeans she has worn for almost two years now. She is a perfect size seven. We hope to take her off the antihistimine next month.
The beauty of a diagnosis is the ability to talk to my child in a language she understands, to help her LEARN what most of the common signals mean, even if its by memorization, so she can get through life with less heart ache , self hatred or frustration. Im very grateful at this time that her doctor who has known her since birth also has a son who is AS and was able to spot it. She had thought it a possibility before but felt nothing warrented looking into it yet as she was young and had few maladaptive behaviours as yet.
There were obviously many more symptoms, but this was the scene that made it imperative for her to get a diagnosis. She didn't know what her body was saying when it was hungry, she thought she had a stomach ache every time. She was 47 pounds. She has difficulty understanding the signals her body sends her about many things, she has difficulty understanding signals other humans are giving her, she has difficulty with abstract ideas, etc., her vocabulary is good but her use of words is often quirky and slightly off kilter.
The first few days I was so sad for her. I said to someone "I always just veiwed her as quirky, odd in a good way, interesting and funny, someone who marched to her own drummer. We always though ADHD." and my wonderful friend said "She still is , now you just know the drummer"
She was placed on a cool antihistimine that has a nice side effect of increasing appetite to stretch her stomach and get her used to eating and what hungry feels like or the signals that mean 'hungry'. She weighs fifty three pounds now and her hip bones dont stick out, her skin doesnt have that pale translucent with blue veins look any more. She grew out of the length of all of her jeans she has worn for almost two years now. She is a perfect size seven. We hope to take her off the antihistimine next month.
The beauty of a diagnosis is the ability to talk to my child in a language she understands, to help her LEARN what most of the common signals mean, even if its by memorization, so she can get through life with less heart ache , self hatred or frustration. Im very grateful at this time that her doctor who has known her since birth also has a son who is AS and was able to spot it. She had thought it a possibility before but felt nothing warrented looking into it yet as she was young and had few maladaptive behaviours as yet.