robertwnielsen
Well-Known Member
Of course, that's the opening line to Robin Williams' Live at the Met special. I found this forum through another forum called Spectrumville, so I thought I'd come here and visit as well.
I suffered a noncommunicating hydrocephalus when I was born - my mother's birth canal wasn't big enough, so the doctor grabbed the "salad spoons" (I always thought that was just a term that Bill Cosby coined for his Natural Childbirth routine, but my sister-in-law, who's an RN, and studying to be a CMA, said that's actually what they call forceps in the delievery room). Anyway, the doctor grabbed the "salad spoons" and pulled me out, and it caused a blockage of the cerebro-spinal fluid, causing my head to grow abnormally large (it's still larger than average to this very day), and causing pressure on the brain - in fact, I still have the shunt that was put in to control the fluid, even though nature corrected the problem by the time I was a toddler. However, the condition still left me with mild to moderate brain damage, most specifically to the right hemisphere.
I started suspecting something was very wrong with me, mentally, when I was a child - I could (and still can) quote entire scenes, if not entire movies, from memory (which, while entertaining, could be very annoying at times), and had a strange fixation with dates. For example, most people know that the space shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986. I, however, know that day was a Tuesday, and that the shuttle exploded at 11:38 AM that morning. Or, most people know that Dec. 7, 1941 is the day that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, bringing the U.S. into World War II. I know that day was a Sunday morning, and that the first bomb was dropped at 0755 (7:55 AM).
Anyway, I've had extreme difficulty keeping a job (and, currently unemployed) because of my autistic characteristics - I fall more into the NOS category than Asperger's (which is what I originally thought was my problem), but I hope to learn more about my condition through discussions here.
PS - I use Jim Carrey's line from Batman Forever as my signature because that's another issue that I have - a "serious impulse control problem." I don't mean to offend anyone.
RWN
I suffered a noncommunicating hydrocephalus when I was born - my mother's birth canal wasn't big enough, so the doctor grabbed the "salad spoons" (I always thought that was just a term that Bill Cosby coined for his Natural Childbirth routine, but my sister-in-law, who's an RN, and studying to be a CMA, said that's actually what they call forceps in the delievery room). Anyway, the doctor grabbed the "salad spoons" and pulled me out, and it caused a blockage of the cerebro-spinal fluid, causing my head to grow abnormally large (it's still larger than average to this very day), and causing pressure on the brain - in fact, I still have the shunt that was put in to control the fluid, even though nature corrected the problem by the time I was a toddler. However, the condition still left me with mild to moderate brain damage, most specifically to the right hemisphere.
I started suspecting something was very wrong with me, mentally, when I was a child - I could (and still can) quote entire scenes, if not entire movies, from memory (which, while entertaining, could be very annoying at times), and had a strange fixation with dates. For example, most people know that the space shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986. I, however, know that day was a Tuesday, and that the shuttle exploded at 11:38 AM that morning. Or, most people know that Dec. 7, 1941 is the day that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, bringing the U.S. into World War II. I know that day was a Sunday morning, and that the first bomb was dropped at 0755 (7:55 AM).
Anyway, I've had extreme difficulty keeping a job (and, currently unemployed) because of my autistic characteristics - I fall more into the NOS category than Asperger's (which is what I originally thought was my problem), but I hope to learn more about my condition through discussions here.
PS - I use Jim Carrey's line from Batman Forever as my signature because that's another issue that I have - a "serious impulse control problem." I don't mean to offend anyone.
RWN
Last edited:
