I'm Giving a Talk re Asperger's at Work

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I usually prefer nurse practitioners to DRs for the following reasons....

They tell me what they are going to do step by step and even tell me why they are doing it...Information makes me feel better.

They answer my questions without acting like "it's none of your business,let me deal with the details"

They dont try and rush me out the door when I have difficulty remembering things(I am a horrible self reporter)Sometimes if they ask a very specific question I will do better then if they say...."how do you feel"...dont be vague.

If I tell them I cant do something(swim in a public pool,dont own a private one)Dont assume I am trying to be attention seeking/difficult....I am being direct and honest and have my reasons.

Aspies arent clones....we are very diverse in our sensitivities,strengths and difficulties.

I dont respect someone just because of their age,gender,nationality or college degree.......EX......When I asked my DR for a referal for a DX for AS....she responded...."information on the internet is all lies,you cant have AS because you can speak"....then she got mad and walked out of the room.......I dont see that DR anymore.If you are misinformed about something.I may argue with you,if you get an attitude....I will leave.

Good luck!

- don't tell them that, they might hurt us more - is it osteopaths or physios that do the grade 5 manipulations...

No. I meant many have a higher threshold of pain so they may have a worse pathology than you think if you just take their report of levels of pain at face value.

I use a Nurse Practitioner as well. She is wise and she is fair. When I told her I was AS she actually did some research on it cause she had intellectual curiosity! How wonderful to have someone that is honestly interested in this unique condition.

That's what you can tell your students. . .to use their intellectual curiousity to ask US how we deal with things, cause we can tell you if you are really interested, but we have a big BS detector and can see through you if you use stock phrases like speaking in the plural.

how degrading!


Merle

That will scare a few of them!

The director of physio is now inviting the physio department from the nearby childrens' hospital over as well.

In fact the director of physio is so excited about me giving this talk. Her best friend has 6 children - 4 are aspies!

Good for you! That's a big leap forward.

and another thing. This might just be me, but I always though Health Care meant just that. CARE. Like they were there to CARE FOR YOU. Somehow I thought I could be at my most vulnerable with Health Care professionals because they would CARE FOR ME.

I didn't understand that their idea of care was to check your vitals, knock around on your knees, peer into your throat and ears, inquire about your bowels, and stitch you up or draw blood or what everand then "NEXT!"
I don't know if I am expressing this right, but it is like not being a regular fast food place customer and going into the restaurant and acutally having to peruse the menu. People behind you think you are taking too much time,("Just gice 'em your order, Ma'am! ") and the guy/gal at the counter has done it a million times and can't be bothered with much talking out side of the script of asking if you want fries with that. everyone there knows the drill and you are just trying to take it all in and put some food into your body.

The Aspie in health care is like that novice person marveling at all the choices and debating with their selves on how to get these nutrients into their body, when they are feeling hunger pangs anyway and must chose only those menu items they can afford. They take the assembly line mentality PERSONALLY, because, frankly we take EVERYTHING personally.

So
I thought CARE was soft words and concerned faces and gentle talk and I would feel better about myself and the body I lived in. I remember getting physical therapy for some knee and back problems after an auto accident. I didn't do my exercises and was so obviously depressed and slow moving and listless at my appointments and no one, NO ONE addressed this issue. No one asked me why I wasn't doing my exercises, no one asked me if I was experiencing some sort of depression, I guess they just thought I must have family and friends and a normal social life or somthing, but there I go again, thinking that the professionals were supposed to CARE FOR ME.

So, please, stress the holistic model when you teach. The mind and body and spirit are a whole package and needs to be addressed as such in healing.

Thank you,

Merle

One thing I'm surprised no one has mentioned is the lack of priority in autistic speech. People may call it equal distribution of detail. For example, let's say you had severe pain in your leg from an exercise. You go to your appointment and the PT asks, how you have been. An aspie might forget to mention the pain and instead mention the bad traffic jam on the way to the office. Or that he noticed the furniture in the lobby had been changed.
I do this a lot or if there is a series of events I have to report, I might only mention the severe pain in my leg.
NTs also like to hear about feelings and autistics will explain their emotions differently, if at all. I remember dating a guy and telling him stories that I felt were sharing how I felt. He later dumped me and said that I never told him how I felt about those stories. He didn't get that I was telling him. The stories had a bias and explain my feelings would be redundant.

I've had misunderstandings or delay of care because I can't relay my feelings about a particular process to a health professional.

too right