Conor looking cool, calm and composed in his grandparents’ yard in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley in November. This morning he showed just as much calm while enduring an early morning blood sample needle. We were, once again, very proud of our Conor today. Not for demonstrating some special “autism” skill, not for anything
Continue readingTag: Conor Doherty
Facing Autism in New Brunswick: See You At 6
Conor went to bed at his usual time tonight. After about an hour he got up to use the washroom. As he was heading back to his room he said in his own manner of speech “See you at 6” which is the exact time he gets up every morning.
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Life in Conor’s "Back Yard", Fredericton’s North Riverfront Trail, in 2013
2013 was a challenging year for Conor and Dad health wise. I spent a week in acute care with some respiratory issues and Conor spent 2 weeks in hospital, including a six day stay in the ICU recovering from a life threatening adverse reaction to his seizure medication. Overall though
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Severe Autism Disorders: Conor’s Autism Progress: Teeth Brushing and Tickle Shaves!
Conor Doherty sporting a big smile after a quick tickle shave adventure with Dad this morning Many famous “autistics” were not diagnosed until they were adults and have turned their diagnoses into good career opportunities: John Elder Robison, Michelle Dawson, Ari Ne’eman and Mr. Ne’eman’s colleagues, the fellow corporate trustees of
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Excellent! Chalmers ICU Team Reaches Its Funding Goal to Purchase New Patient Monitoring Equipment!
The Chalmers Foundation has officially announced that it has met its funding goal and will soon be purchasing the patient monitoring system that is instrumental in helping the Chalmers Hospital Intensive Care Unit save many lives … including my son Conor’s for which his Mom and Dad will always be
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Conor Countdown Continues In Support of FLEXIBLE, EVIDENCE BASED Inclusion
The Conor Countdown continues, as Conor gets up each day at 6 am and changes the number reflecting the number of days until school resumes. My son Conor, and his autism disorder disability, have been well accommodated in schools here in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. He has benefited both from
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Run Jump Fly Boy Is Back – Thank You Again DECH ICU!
A few months ago, Conor was lying unconscious in a bed at the Intensive Care Unit of the Chalmers’ Hospital (the DECH) with tubes running out of his body and hooked up to 10+ year old monitoring equipment. Notwithstanding the age of the monitoring equipment the fantastic DECH ICU team
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Conor Debunks TWO Autism Myths Eh!
Yesterday was Canada Day and Conor sported his Team Canada shirt to celebrate. He also debunked not one but TWO autism myths. Conor has received ABA based intervention at school for 8 years. Yet, contrary to the myth that ABA causes discomfort and harm to persons with autism disorders, Conor
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Conor Goes For A Swim (and a Dive and a Slide) and Shows Terrific Progress In His Rhabdomyolysis Recovery
Conor home after a great swim adventure; making terrific progress on his recovery Conor’s autism and profound developmental delay were supplemented by two grand mal seizures between November 2012 and April 2013. The second seizure occurred two days after he began treatment with the anti seizure medication Lamotrogine. During the
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Conor’s Physiotherapy With CBC’s Terry Seguin
Conor is still recovering from Rhabdomyolysis, an adverse reaction to anti-seizure medication, Lamotrogine and needs phsyiotherapy to rebuild his damaged muscles, balance and co-ordination. Just being home is a huge help for Conor, back home with Mom, Dad, his brother and his familiar routines. One of those routines has been to
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Conor Is Home From the Hospital!
Above Conor, and Mom, in the bottom pic, on the way home. Conor’s Mom stayed at the hospital with him 24/7, for 2 weeks Dad spelled her off at times and the nursing students also sat with Conor and gave Mom some breaks once he was moved from the Intensive
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Conor Is Safe Now But We Almost Lost Our Buddy: THANK YOU To ALL Who Saved Him!
In mid-April, pursuant to a neurologist’s advice, we started Conor on Lamotrogine, an anti-eleptic drug which is reputed to have benefited many people suffering from seizure activity. Hours after receiving his third dosage Conor suffered his second Grand Mal seizure, that we know of, since his first in November 2012.
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Autism and the Natural Environment: Conor Celebrates Earth Day Every Day
Today is Earth Day! Conor celebrated yesterday with some Run, Jump, Fly fun on the North Riverfront Trail here in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. We try to get outdoors and celebrate our natural environment with Conor every day, every chance we get.
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: New Brunswick’s Extreme Inclusion Fantasy Harms Some Children With Severe Autism Challenges
Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Jody Carr EECD/NBACL Event Focus on Inclusion: Walking in our shoes. Minister Carr spoke for 40 minutes, repeating the word inclusion 30 – 40 times but never mentioning evidence based accommodation of individual needs and challenges Premier David Alward’s government has transferred control over New Brunswick education
Continue readingFacing Autism Symptoms in New Brunswick: Conor’s Autism Diagnosis 15 Years Ago Today
Conor, 2nd Birthday, the day before he is diagnosed with PDD-NOS (subsequently changed to Autistic Disorder) Yesterday was Conor’s 17th birthday. Today is exactly 15 years since he was diagnosed with an autism disorder, PDD-NOS, the day after his second birthday shown in the pictures above. Shortly afterward he was
Continue readingFacing Autism Symptoms in New Brunswick: Conor’s Quiet Joy
Autism is a spectrum in many ways including the ways in which it is presented through various media. Everybody, particularly the main stream media, loves the feel good stories of accomplishment. We all suffer when we see images of self injurious behavior: common occurrences in severe autism although rarely reflected
Continue readingFacing Autism Symptoms in New Brunswick: Conor’s Fredericton 2012 – Part II
The Autism Society New Brunswick met on several occasions with senior civil servants during the administration of successive provincial governments to advocate for a modern residential care facility and system. The concept was to have a facility located in Fredericton because of its central location and proximity to the autism
Continue readingFacing Autism Symptoms in New Brunswick: Conor’s Fredericton 2012 – Part I
Moved back to New Brunswick from Burlington (I commuted each day to Toronto (Eaton Centre) and back) in 1997. Conor was 1 year old at the time and has since grown up in The Green City aka Fredericton. I can’t imagine what life would have been like with 4-5 hours
Continue readingFacing Autism Disorders in New Brunswick: Conor’s Wheel of Fortune Gooey Brownie Tickle Game
Hey Dad, wanna play the Gooey Brownie Tickle Game? I had trouble, despite the very substantial weight difference, holding Conor back from giving me a Gooey Brownie Tickle And the Gooey Brownie Tickle winner is: Conor … of course! Conor has enjoyed watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! with Mom
Continue readingFacing Autism Disorders in New Brunswick: One Grand Mal Seizure Later Conor Is Back
Conor was happy and full of life on our trail walk today.
At times his feet didn’t even touch the ground.
The Grand Mal seizure Conor experienced Saturday morning took him down pretty hard (and scared the bejeebers out of his Dad).  …
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