Autism And it’s Whack Friends

Autism comes with its own symptoms. Social communication weaknesses, inability to understand nuance, hand flapping or other stims that help them feel more at ease – regulated. Different situations or conditions make different autistics feel the fright or flight sensation way too frequently and for things that wouldn’t phases a non-autistic – the sound of a car, a garbage truck, the ocean, waves, wind, kettle boiling…

But autism also comes with its ‘friends that stick closer than a brother.’ Some autistics are average or above average in intelligence. Or gifted even, like my talking twin. But others have friends like “intellectual disability,” like my ten year old and his six year old sister. ADHD is another one that likes to attack itself to autistics. And one that I’m focusing on today, is gastrointestinal problems.

Autistics are four times more likely to have tummy issues than non-autistics. My son is lactose intolerant and has loose stools. My six year old has always had times of constipation which have responded to prune puree and laxative syrup. Until now.

Above in that photo, is her trying vainly to push out a LARGE amount of stool, as shown by the x-rays she had at hospital last week. Yep, my readers who don’t watch my channel don’t know the horror we went through last week. If you check my YouTube channel, you’ll get a glimpse. She has slow gastric emptying -which is sadly quite normal but very painful, causing nausea, irritability. The stomach empties the food out way too slowly, so it collects. And she is currently also dealing with a gastroenteritis attack. Talk about two bad reasons to be feign relentless abdominal pain.💔

That’s where we are now. Laxative syrup at high dose, prune juice, prune puree and a suppository are not flushing out the large amount of stool she has in her system. But the medical option- using colonoscopy prep meds is not likely to work on her. The doctor is very aware of how disgusting the mixture tastes (Don’t we who have had colonoscopies know it?) and so for an autistic, that’s already a huge no no. For those with taste sensitivities, it will feel like an assault. Add the fact that she doesn’t understand why we are giving her these things, and you have even less chance of the very large needed dose being swallowed. If she swallowed it all, it working would also cause her a lot of distress.

It is terrible when your child gets so much intervention but it doesn’t actually help, it just reduces the pressure a little bit.

She’s on heavy pain medication but it then adds sleepiness and wooziness so I didn’t give her any of the sedating type one before her OT session today. But without it, she screams, and even with it, when it wears off, she will scream for a long time and no amount of belly rubbing like suggested for IBS-C, makes a difference. Has never helped me either, to be frank. It leaves me and her big brother, so helpless. And she wonders around pulling us here and there screaming and not knowing that drinking more will help.

Autism has rude friends. Unfriendly friends. Friends that hurt both body and soul. I wish she could understand that she needs to drink even though she doesn’t want to. I wish she understood why certain foods are bad for her digestive system. I wish she could understand why she’s suffering and that we are trying to help her.

I wish she didn’t need to understand any of these things, anyway.

Blessed are those whose autistic loved ones have very, very few friends.