Requisite 'Hi, I'm new'. 30 minus a few days, female, AZ. Been aware of this community for some time, figured I'd finally pop in and chat.
I have suspected I have AS for quite a while but am now getting serious about pushing for a Dx. I got serious once before, about 7 years ago when my psych started pushing me towards neuro saying that for all the social anxiety and depression help she'd given me she really thought there was something else to it. I did actually get myself screened for AS at the time, and was rejected after one interview but I really didn't dig the provider. No one should ever leave a Dr's office in tears (I don't deal with stress/frustration/misunderstood well at all). 3 neurologists later, someone finally ran a bloody MRI instead of a CAT though and found a tumor. A bout of brain surgery later, it was determined to be what's called a cortical dysplasia. Non-cancerous birth defect type tumor where a bunch of stem cells decided to bugger off and do their own thing. (dysplasias don't show up on CAT scans because they're technically normal cellular material, just malformed)
So, my whole life I had my right amygdala totally malformed and now I don't have a right amygdala at all (unilateral amygdalectomy). And what parts of the brain have been indicated in a number of studies of physiological differences on the spectrum? Temporal lobe bits? Hippocampus indicated in HFA and amygdala in AS. Things have been... affected since the 2010 surgery, but not all good. Some good sure, I'm better at attempting social stuff, other things I'm less a fan of have been exacerbated. My husband and some friends that I've told I'm going after this Dx again to have reacted as 'omg yeah I can totally see that. When you do $X seems a little autistic sometimes'. I kinda need the official Dx for medical/coverage reasons, I'm a self-employed/business owner and have my own insurance, but as far as I'm concerned personally it's a done deal. There is obviously something going on with me beyond 'tumor and scarring' that I need to understand to be able to figure how to fit me into the rest of the world and for all my researching around this is the only thing that fits. I need the label for myself to be able to work it into my life. When I read some of the posts here, and even some of the more wikipedia-type descriptions of AS, I find myself over and over again just nodding and going 'yup, I get that'. I found the non-verbal thread in Haven shortly after starting this account and just went 'holy crap, the verbosity and writing issues I have sometimes, I can't believe how much of this clicks'. So I'm sold. :)
About me otherwise, I'm a big huge nerd - linux, networking, privacy rights, security; gaming (table-top and pc hack-n-slash); car chick; book/reading junkie. Ummm... I'm friendly? Say hi and feel free to ask questions?
16 Oct 2012, 7:13 pm
