The Autism News | English


Seven years and roughly 8 months ago, I was given one of the biggest blessings I will ever have in my lifetime. Samuel Tully Jordan was born, weighing in at a whopping 9 lbs. He was named for my father’s best friend, a man I greatly admired, Sam Johnson. Sam passed away due to Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma during my pregnancy. My brand new little Sam was my easiest delivery out of my three children. The only unusual thing that happened during my pregnancy was preterm labor at 34 weeks. My OBGYN slapped me in the hospital, and put me on a magnesium drip for three days to stop the contractions. They stopped – only for me to be induced at 39 weeks because he was such a big baby. I often look back at this scenario and wonder if that is what happened to essentially cause my son to be “different”.

I believe in the studies that show a genetic predisposition to Autism. And I believe in a trigger – that elusive something that switches off the light in their eyes. I don’t know what Sam’s trigger was and I will likely never know. I, like most parents of children with Autism, have spent an inordinate amount of time and expended a tremendous amount of energy and emotion trying to determine what that trigger was.

Autism Support Network

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