Going to the doctor

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I absolutely agree.

1. It is ok to ask someone from your church to go with you to the appointment. If there is a good family friend there maybe you could ask them, if not then you could ask the priest/pastor if he/she knows anyone who might be appropriate.

2. It is ok to tell the doctor (and the receptionist/nurse/anyone else involved in your care) about your diagnosis and what your particular difficulties are and to ask for whatever help you need in order to deal with those difficulties - if you were in a wheelchair they would not expect you to be able to get up a flight of stairs by yourself would they?

3. It is a good idea to write down what you want to say beforehand, that way if you get stuck you can just hand them your sheet of paper - I sometimes temporarily lose speech myself in certain emotional states (which talking about personal feelings seems to be guaranteed to produce) and I have found that doing this means a) it's less likely to happen if I can sit there and read something off a sheet rather than looking at them and b) if it does happen I can just hand it over anyway. I have also noticed you are very articulate when you write so written communication is probably one of your strengths.

I think people have given you a lot of good advice on here. Good luck with your appointment.

Mom is calling a friend from church tomorrow.

We do tell every doctor about my diagnosis first thing... but I am thinking we might need to either have a note on my file or maybe even give them my (short) letter that explains some suggestions for interaction with me, because while they seem to know I'm autistic, they don't seem to have any idea what to DO with me.

I will start writing everything down before I go, with Mom, and having it ready.

That sounds like a good plan! I really do think your doctor's will appreciate the information and will be pleased you took the effort.

Of course, please let us know how things went. It's really helpful to us parents to learn about this kind of stuff, so our kids can be prepared as adults.