I understand that for many of you, you didn’t go to school and specialize in Autism.
I didn’t either.
But somehow it seems I’m expected know everything about it.
As a parent with a special needs child, we are expected to have a medical degree, multiple therapy degrees, education degrees, degrees in nutrition, psychology and more. (I’ll be able to claim the psychology degree in a few months.) At least it seems that way when we take our child with Autism to the doctor or consult one.
So many times I have had a doctor ask me what we should do next.
You’re asking me??? You’re the one with the medical degree. You’re the one I’m paying money to tell me what to do next. You’re the one we have been waiting hours to see with hope that you can give us answers or at least point us in the direction towards some.
A lot of our kids with special needs have multiple issues and frequently those issues affect the other issues. Add medication into the equation and you have another round of things affecting all those different issues in different ways.
The truth is, in our world, a world of autism and multiple special needs, sometimes in spite of all the medical advances we have made there are no answers.
No one can tell my why my son suffers from a sleep disorder that can make him sleep 20 hours a day and no one can figure out and can’t figure out how to treat.
No one can tell my friend why her son’s upper body randomly swells to the point where it threatens his airways and organs.
This no answers place is scary. It’s hard and feels impossible. But that is a life many families find themselves in and many of these no answers cases are life threatening.
Dear Doctors,
Be patient with us. Tell us when you don’t know something. Send us in pursuit of anything that might work. And most important. . .
Be gentle with us.
