Polly's pages (aka 'Donna Williams')

Ever the arty Autie

The dance with immune deficiency

February18

THE DANCE

Grizzle, grizzle, grizzle grump.
Sore throat you woke me like a broken record.
“But you sounded so good…”.
And I remember myself like a poster glossy and shiny
shredded overnight in my interrupted dreams.

We’ll fingers crossed, hey?
We’ll hope like hell.
‘Cause Jesus ain’t waiting in the sunlight with fairy dust.

and positive thinking won’t buy me a Mercedes
(or an immune system).

Click your heels Dorothy.
Hope ’til your nipples fall off. Read the rest of this entry »

Compulsive ear popping

January27

Some people can voluntarily open the Eustachian tubes in their ears.  This causes a clicking or popping sound.   Those who can’t do this suffer from ear pressure on aeroplanes but those who can do it may suffer from something else, especially if they also have OCD and perhaps even more so if they suffered from chronic ear infections throughout childhood.  Why?  Read the rest of this entry »

The Aim of AIME Mentoring Program

January24

AIME is a mentoring program for Indigenous Australian high school kids.  It links them up with Indigenous University Students to inspire and encourage them to take their hopes, dreams and skills further.  AIME has launched a TV campaign to raise awareness of their program.  They need (tax deductible) donations to keep this important program going.  They need to spread awareness of the program and the inequality indigenous Australian’s, particularly youth, are still experiencing in Australian cities and towns today.  Check out their work.  Blog about it.  Volunteer.  Donate.  Read the rest of this entry »

posted under Australia, health, human rights, sociology, Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Aim of AIME Mentoring Program

Thank you Bactrim …. grr

January19

It’s amazing how humble you get after 6 antibiotics have failed you and you’ve almost drowned in your own lung muck, had your infected throat too painful to swallow, lost all your energy so you’re walking like a 95 year old (and are only 46) and feel your biggest exercise of the day was breathing as the weight falls off what’s left of your skinny self.  I remember the shrink who would always say, ‘one day you’ll look back and laugh’.   And I feel so happy to be off Bactrim, yet I can’t help but be grateful to that demon drug.  Read the rest of this entry »

Affordable Autism Lectures

January19

Hi Folks,

I’ve got 2 pay per view lectures up on Autism Hangout you might find of interest. Read the rest of this entry »

When Haemophilus met Strep – a black widow love story

January11

donna aged 8 and john sml 2 The strangest thing happened on my way to pneumonia… Read the rest of this entry »

My Experiences With Atypical Epilepsy

January10

donna aged 4 buzzing sml Sally Colletti is involved with Advocates for Autism (www.advocateforautism.com) and is compiling a book about Atypical Seizures. When I mentioned my diagnosis in my 20s of Atypical Epilepsy she asked me about my own experiences. Here’s our interview: Read the rest of this entry »

Low salicylate Pear wine (Perry) for those unable to have grapes

January7

gentle sml Like a large percentage of the autistic population and a large percentage of the ADHD population, I’m salicylate intolerant which means foods high in salicylates can increase asthma, give me hives, migraines and joint inflammation, suppress liver function, suppress  immunity and trigger further food and chemical allergies and associated fatigue.  High salicylate levels also make my mind race and make me anxious, distracted and hyper.

In those with salicylate intolerance, high levels commonly affect these people like cocaine might affect others and it’s not unusual to find those with salicylate intolerance diagnosed with Read the rest of this entry »

And the Lung Demon’s name was…Haemophilus Influenzae

December23

Eleanor sml After 4 months of lung infection, nose infection, ear infection, throat infection, four antibiotics and every nutritional and lifestyle intervention for Primary Immune Deficiency, finally, fairly good news today from the doc today.  They now know exactly which bug I have (they knew it was bacterial but had a lot of tests to work out which one it was) which means we can now fight it better.  It’s a kind of pneumonia called Haemophilus Influenzae (one of which is Hib) and 3 of the 4 antibiotics we’d tried are not known to touch it so I may not be immune to antibiotics yet which is great news for me, thanks Santa.  Read the rest of this entry »

posted under Donna Williams, health, Uncategorized | Comments Off on And the Lung Demon’s name was…Haemophilus Influenzae

Becoming Aware of Autism

November22

personal space smlWelcome to Autism 2009, the fifth online world conference to be held within the AWARES conference centre.

This conference opens on Monday, November 30, 2009, and runs for a week until December 7, 2009. Paper abstracts will be accessible from early November.

Speaker list includes*:

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen
Donna Williams
Dr Susan Folstein
Dr Gary Mesibov
Professor Susan Leekam
Dr Wendy Lawson
Dr Manuel Casanova
Stephen Shore….
Read the rest of this entry »

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