I can;t imagine life without my son, it has been a constant struggle with my son since he was diagnosed with autism. Even though he can speak, I have to rely on visual cues and common sense to meet his needs. With the doctors has been a struggle to get answers(and they are out there), genetic testing comes up, no referals or "he shows no signs of a genetic disorder". I finally got a referal after 12 year to get some genetic testing done to find out that he has a genetic disorder that causes his autism. Chromosone 16 deletion, p11.2, a fairly new discovery, I had found out that I had given it to him. Not too much is known about it so I don't know what kind of support there is lr how to deal with it. Not everyone who has the deletion has autism, I lead a fairly normal life but I have not been diagnosed with autism and could possibly have very mild austic behavior, my son has reconizable autisic behavior because of the deletion. Everyone tells me it's not my fault, but the guilt I feel that I have given him a genetic disorder. I have only one child, as much as I love my son, if I had known my genetic disposition, I don't know if I would have gone the route of having him, and because I know now and have no other children I have not passed on my genetic disorder to other children.

Anonymous
vancouver, WA