As we approach the last week of September 2023, I can reflect on the return to school for the girls and me, declaring that survival mode exhausts the entire family. Yes, we’re in survival mode, and it’s a lot like hanging on to a rope suspended above a dark, bottomless…
Tag: medical emergencies
Podcast 0105, Season 6, Episode 15; 20 June 2023 Loss, and its accompanying trauma, alter our minds. The neurodiversity of PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, illustrates how stress alters us. For autistics who rely on stability and routines, losing friends and family results in multiple traumas. In this episode, Marinda Dennis…
As of today, Leigh is wearing special contact lenses for degenerative myopia. She has high-end sunglasses to wear with those contacts, too. With the MiSight contacts and her sunglasses, Leigh can see with 20/20 vision. I cannot express what a relief it is that she can see well again. School…
Overnight Wednesday my left eye’s cornea suffered a tear or abrasion. It was a surprise. An extremely painful surprise. Unfortunately, I am familiar with the pain. In 2008 and 2009, I suffered several corneal tears in Minnesota’s cold, dry weather. It’s a pain you do not forget. For the last…
The future scares me. The Pessimistic Me dominates my internal deliberations when I try to prepare for the future. I’m an odd mix of pessimist and optimist, which isn’t easy to explain. A friend said that’s true of other creators and entrepreneurs. Yes, I gamble on the future, but I prepare…
I wrote in my last blog post that teaching was taking a toll on my body. Friday night, I ended up in the emergency room after coughing blood for several hours. Blood is usually not a good sign. After x-rays, CT scans, and various tests, it was decided I have…
The girls have been asking why they didn’t get to see the princesses or the castle at Disney. Explaining there is something wrong with Grandpa’s health isn’t something little ones understand. We left early, not using one day of our passes, because my father wasn’t feeling well. We still don’t…
Parenting stress is unlike other stress. Somehow, I manage to think more clearly — or not think — and get things done. I still need my wife to help sometimes, but I manage the basics when our children are involved. Earlier in the trip, I imagined the most panic I’d…
Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Monterey, Morro Bay, the Central Valley, and a fly over the Golden Gate Bridge at night. That was our ten-day (or eleven-day) vacation trip to California for the summer of 2018. Daddy and two excited little girls met up with friends and family for much of…
I realize my blogs (not only The Autistic Me) have been slow throughout 2016. Life has a way of consuming more hours than exist in the day. My to-do list exceeds any realistic amount of time I might have each day, week, or month. If all goes well, in December…