*waves*
So I guess I'm doing this bass ackwards. Jumped right into posting before doing the intro. *oops*
My name is Dallas. I'm 37 yrs old, married with a 4 yr old daughter. I have a penchant for all things Welsh (or anything else European for that matter). I am a writer who aspires to be an author, if only in my deepest secret dreams. In reality I'm so terrified of being in any type of public sphere, I doubt I'll ever have the gumption to try to get published. But still, it's in my blood. I'm a 4th generation writer, and in today's world, that means I blog. Constantly. I have a feeling I am not alone in this, given what I've read here so far.
Hrmmm, I should probably at some point say why I'm here, and not 'there'...
For most of my daughter's young life, I've felt there was something 'off', especially regarding her social development, and speech, or lack thereof. I'd been reticent of taking her to a doctor to get tested primarily because I felt it would be unfair to label her prematurely. She hasn't been in daycare except when she was very young, about 1.5 yrs old. Since then she's been with my father in law during the day while my husband and I worked. While this is a good thing I believe because it's family, it also I feel has hindered her social development. She's 4, she should be in preschool, but we could never afford it. My husband makes "too much" money to qualify for assistance. Ohhh the irony..
Anyway, I felt I should wait till she got into school or some type of setting where she's around other kids her age to see if she would catch up on her development, and then if she still exhibited signs of stunted social development, seek some evaluation for her.
Still, something kept nagging at me. I've had friends with autistic children, and though I've supported them unconditionally as best I can emotionally, I didn't really do a whole lot of learning about it. I kept being drawn back to Asperger's. She's so hypersensitive, to emotions of me and her father, as well as to any change in her 'routine'.
I've had a lot of jobs in my adult life, most recently for a year and a half at a pretty well known IT company where I live. I was a security dispatch operator. My job was to stare at computer monitors and big screen tv's, handle phone calls and crisis management when something happened like earthquakes in another country, flooding, fires, etc. I loved my job. It's easily been the most rewarding and most satisfying job I've ever had and the longest time I've ever had one job. But the team and social politics became impossible to deal with, and ended up with me quitting abruptly right at Christmas. Long story, won't go into it here.
But that sent me back to searching for answers. Instead of reading about my daughter however, I found out I was looking at myself. How many of us have been in that place? I'm not exactly new to that feeling though, since I discovered hormone issues with my health long before I found a doctor who understood it and could effectively treat me. And true to form, I've blogged it all.
In the past month since I haven't been working, I've been doing what I really do best: research. It's led me here and other autism forums. I've spent hours on the phone trying to find a doctor in my area who could evaluate me, and keep hitting brick walls. At my age it's "nearly impossible" to diagnose me, according to one office's receptionist. But I'm bloody stubborn, and refuse to give up until I have a definitive "yes" or "no" to this.
Some people think it shouldn't matter, but it does to me. So I'm here. Hi!