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Hello, my name is Ron.

germanium

Member
Hello my name is Ron but I go by Germanium online. I am an self diagnosed autistic that under previous DSM4 definitions would have likely been diagnosed PDD/NOS. I have struggled with coordination all my life & extreme nervousness. I have also struggled with mild to moderate fecal incontinence since childhood.

Other things I have struggled with are depression, anxiety, myoclonus, Dysthymia, being a slow learner & in special ed classes 3rd through 6th grade & special classes for slow learners in 7th & 8th grade. I suffered a stroke just over 3 years ago which thankfully didn't affect my mental functioning thought wise but did affect my motor functioning as well as sensory issues over entire left side of my body. It was at that time I found that I had a missing A1 artery in my brain which reduced blood flow to front part of my brain likely since birth. This likely is why I couldn't perform well beyond a certain time limit as for example my hands when learning to type would after 1 short paragraph at reasonable but still low pace would ball up & refuse to cooperate & my performance would fall from 35 WPM to less than 10 WPM with lots of mistakes. I get overloaded very easily & do my best work when allowed to work at my own pace.

I am 65 years old now & retired from truck driving 4 years ago due to pain from piched spinal cord caused by 3 ruptured cervical disks. I drove truck for 20+ years. Last 10 years with same company. I was reasonably good driver not making any really bad mistakes that would cost lots of money to fix. I was somewhat better than average at that I would say. It was only successful career I had. I also spent almost 10 years on social security SSI & welfare combined until I got DVR to help me to get trained as a truck driver. If I had not pushed them in this direction they were content to keep me working in sheltered work shops in which I struggled due to both coordination issues & the feeling that I was so much more capable than that as long as I could find something that I could do that didn't require huge degree of fine coordination.

Truck driving filled that nitch area, I had sufficient coordination for that & had very fine throttle control which I used for shifting instead of the clutch. It was one less thing I had to coordinate & I was much smoother this way. I was very easy on the equipment & very rarely broke down even when given trucks that had poor reliability with other drivers I did well in them.


In terms of relationships I am currently in one. I have a girl friend but I still spend a lot of time to myself as I have grave difficulty handling when she starts going off on me for little or no reason. It's been slowly getting better but I still struggle. I am largely a loner as I have never been comfortable in a crowd. I tend to have a very few good friends which have helped me & who I like spending some time with but even there my comfort level is limited not due to them but just my desire for alone time.
 
Welcome! I think it's good that you recognize your needs and how to best adapt your lifestyle for that.

As for friends, many of us only have a few, but I would much rather have several good friends than many casual friends :)
 
Welcome. You sound like you have some interesting stories to tell and I hope you enjoy reading some of ours.
 
Hi and welcome. Sounds like you did well advocating for yourself, you found your way to work that you were good at, despite the lack of useful support. Sorry to hear you are affected by the stroke, I hope you may yet recover some of the physical aspects that have been affected? And how strange that the stroke was also the reason that they finally found an important physical cause of some of the symptoms you experience! I hope you enjoy it here and find it useful and supportive.
 
Hi and welcome. Sounds like you did well advocating for yourself, you found your way to work that you were good at, despite the lack of useful support. Sorry to hear you are affected by the stroke, I hope you may yet recover some of the physical aspects that have been affected? And how strange that the stroke was also the reason that they finally found an important physical cause of some of the symptoms you experience! I hope you enjoy it here and find it useful and supportive.


Thank you. As far as stroke recovery goes it's not likely to get better as it has already been over 3 years since stroke but I am doing about as well as can be expected. When I went into hospital I couldn't walk. When I left after 2 weeks recovery I could walk & not only that but could still drive my car which had a stick shift at the time.
 
Great you are doing better.
Depression does rate as a issue for us sadly.
However special interests can keep us from jumping the exits in life.
Do you have any special interests?

I have heard that truck driving is actually very hard on the body and does take a toll. But bravo for you finding a career and excelling forward.

Welcome Ron :)
 
Great you are doing better.
Depression does rate as a issue for us sadly.
However special interests can keep us from jumping the exits in life.
Do you have any special interests?

I have heard that truck driving is actually very hard on the body and does take a toll. But bravo for you finding a career and excelling forward.

Welcome Ron :)

Thank you Aspychata.

Special interests that I have had over the years are observing different mechanical designs analysing different qualities & weighing thier benefits in my head. Also modifying electronics related to analog sections of digital audio systems. Modifying amplifiers.

My online nickname relates to my interest in electronics & the fact that my history of success & germaniums history in electronics use have close parallels. My success in finding a career paralleled time wise Intels use of germanium to improve performance of computer chips. This was after germanium power transistors totally failed driving some well respected companies out of business near the time I was born.

I would like to make note that it was being used as a supporting material not the main ingredient just like my abilities have always best been used to support others that are the leaders in thier field of business & not the one at the head of business. This often troubled me & used to put me into deep depression crying for days at a time but I have come to accept my lot in life & these thoughts don't trouble me to the degree they used to.
 
I would like to make note that it was being used as a supporting material not the main ingredient just like my abilities have always best been used to support others that are the leaders in thier field of business & not the one at the head of business.
The unsung hero, working quietly in the background, keeping the boat afloat and the winds at bay while the shiny Captain looks to the glorious sun on the poop deck.
 
@germanium

Hello


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Hi, my name is Ron also welcome to the site incidentally, I also had a stroke three years ago. Second time in my life that I had to learn to walk again. the first time was after a polio vaccine 50 years ago giving me transverse myelitis.
You go through life fixing what it gives.
 
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Hi, my name is Ron also welcome to the site incidentally, I also had a stroke three years ago. Second time in my life that I had to learn to walk again. the first time was after a polio vaccine 50 years ago giving me transverse myelitis.
You go through life fixing what it gives.


Hopefully your doing reasonably well now. I am doing as well as can be expected. My stroke occured in the thalamus at the top of brain stem on right side. It affects my entire left side even though area affected in brain is quite small.

This is one of the most dangerous areas to have a stroke as so many of our life sustaining nerves pass through the thalamus to get to the spinal cord as well as to other parts of the brain. After stroke initially for example my heart wouldn't slow down, nor would it fully relax causing a reduction in capacity per contraction. Fortunately it slowed down & relaxed a few days after getting home from hospital.
 
Hello fellow Ron your stroke appears worse than mine, see purple area.
 

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