Anybody else with an ASD going through a major illness?

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I was diagnosed with a rare salivary gland tumor (called an Acinic cell carninoma) a few months ago shortly after I turned 23.

I had consultation with a surgeon a few weeks ago and ended up losing it emotionally and running out of the hospital in panic (I know silly, what a huge f*cking mistake) - I was utterly hysterical. I feel like the ASD is greatly interfering with my ability to cope with this and it's just too much to bear. It puts me in a mental fog - my surgery got delayed because of my emotional upheaval and I know I'm just screwing myself by letting my autistic side dominate my behavior so it interferes with treatmet.

I also have a serious heart condition (that I just found out about a year ago) called Romano-Ward syndrome which gives me an even greater anxiety in being put under general anastesia as I'm more than twice the risk for going into cardiac arrrest suddenly during the procedure.


Can anyone else relate? are you dealing with Cancer or another disorder with an ASD at the same time and do you feel it affects your coping skills.

I have not gone through anything as serious as you as my illness was more of a chronic nature and was not life threatening. It did however cause me horrible problems with functioning due to leaving me almost bed bound and housebound for a number of years. It was basically very similar to CFS although it was caused by side effects to medications and probably some dietary issues as well. I also have problems with migraine headaches although that is fading out now as well (they are not so frequent as they used to be).

It made it very difficult to cope with things and my tolerance level for stress was greatly reduced as a result.

I hope you get your heath problems sorted out (as best you can) and all that the surgery goes well when you have it.

Your reactions are very typical with ASD and extremely understandable. I think you need to be given some sort of mild sedative like Xanax, if that doesn't interfere with your heart condition. I was so terrified of being put under for my first ever surgery, I had a hernia repair done under local anesthesia. Oh and also had a severely impacted wisdom tooth removed that way. It was interesting being awake while the guy was chiseling my jaw open. But I was still totally looped and didn't feel anything.

I don't have any severe physical illnesses but I developed schizophrenia at the age of 12 which really impacted my life, leading to 15 hospitalisations, including 6 sections (ie being forced into hospital under the law) and being forced into hospital another 5 times by the police finding me extremely unwell and risky in public. I have lost 4-5 years of my life due to this illness and it still affects me day to day. I take two antipsychotics for it as my schizophrenia is severe and I still hear voices, see Spies and have incapacitating paranoia on a daily basis.