Prepare to enter the wild and wooly world of an adult with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of autism characterized by intellignce, quirks, social difficulties and downright strange and oddish behaviours.

People with Aspergers generally are high functioning in everyday life but have great difficulty connecting with others due to the inability to read faces, body language and subtle verbal clues. They also tend to take words literally and have a hard time multi-tasking.

Oversensitivity to touch (clothing has to be soft and often the tags removed), light (do not leave home without the sunglasses), sound (loud noises and noisey places are avoided), taste (many Aspies have quite a limited diet and are frequently very picky eaters) and smells makes the everyday existence more of a challenge.

Fasten your seatbelts and come on in...
To find out more about what Aspergers is..please check out my earliest blog entries

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Arduous, Low Oxalate Diet, Bipolar

I'm not sure why life continues to throw more strife my way. I find day-to-day life a series of small challenges and lately, the difficulty has increased.
I discovered that I am sensitive to high oxalates and the majority of my daily foods were, indeed, medium to high in oxalates. I've had to give up spinach, my daily coffee, almonds, chocolate and peanut butter. In addition to the reduction in available foods by being gluten free and sulfate free (think eggs, wine, preservatives in canned goods, sprayed on fruits and vegetables), I know must add high oxalates to the expansive list. My food choices have diminished dramatically.
In addition to reading research and looking up foods lists, I have to pay acute attention to everything I ingest and how it makes me feel. Spaghetti sauce upsets my stomach, as well as hot dogs, bananas and kefir. I'm not sure the reason for these foods being irritating, nonetheless I have them on my "eat sparingly" list.
It's frustrating to have to spend so much time just finding a meal or even a snack that's compatible. I'm at that stage of early major dietary change, again, so I know that in weeks and months I will have discovered enough foods to eat and this frustration will abate. I never thought so much of my daily life would revolve around something as simple, as mundane and as necessary as getting enough to eat.
It does feel like punishment in some way, having so many foods that I liked being dramatically taken away. Most people don't have to give so much thought to something as bland as finding out what can be eaten and what can't.
After seeing my acupuncturist today, we figured out that I had another manic episode last week. Sigh. It's looking like bipolar is something I'll have to add to the mix of daily dealings. It complicated things.
I don't understand why things get harder, more complicated. I really don't get it. I feel the daily challenges are daunting enough. Why more???????.?.
The other arduous task, that I thought should be a so much easier, is trying to get a myoelectric for my one handed son. I spent hours today with a health navigator just trying to find the right person to talk to or even the correct agency. Didn't happen. Dead ends. Major frustration.
Isn't it enough, please. Can't things go smoother instead of continually increasing the level of difficulty? I don't understand. I really don't.
Life should not be this hard.