ASD and common co-morbidity

I was born with a ventricular septal defect (hole in the heart or congenital heart disease). It wasn't until I was diagnosed with Asperger's in 2011 and read the report that I discovered that this is a common co-morbidity with ASD. Who knew?

So how does it affect me? I am slow, physically, than others. I get a stitch in my side and breathless when I either walk fast, go up a hill or run.

At school I hated PE because I'd be one of the last people to be chosen for teams; probably because I was slower. I hated the gym sessions in primary school. I couldn't do handstands because the blood would rush to my head and I'd go dizzy. In secondary school I remember when we had a sports day at a nearby stadium. Most of the school walked there but I had to get the bus with a few others in my class. We got off at the wrong stop and were late for the start.

When I was little I was told that the hole would decrease in size when I got older but over the last couple of years, I've been told that it has done the opposite and stretched. I still get breathless going too fast or up hill. Sometimes when I walk fast I can hear my heart beat louder, as it's worked hard.

So, that is my common co-morbidity with ASD. Do you have one, too? How does it affect you?

I have loosely based Book 3 of my Rainbow School series ' Susie and the Jiggling Jumper' on me. Susie has a heart condition which makes her slower than her classmates and her little sister, so she has to overcome this with her ASD.

Susie's advice with coping with the anxiety of a heart condition is: 'Don't worry about this. Do things at your own pace and don't feel pressured into doing something that you know you can't do.'

Book review - Colin Fischer by Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz

In my research about Asperger's and how others see it, I begun to read books/ebooks, both fiction and non-fiction, about children with Asperger's/autism. One of the ebooks I have read is Colin Fischer about a teenage boy with Asperger's who solves a mystery at his school. I jotted down notes on similarities between Colin and myself, and here are my notes.

School subjects - when Colin works on a school topic he really goes into it and does research. I did this at school. One topic I remember doing was about sealife world. I wrote lots about it and even stuck in little cards with pictures of sealife to show the subject more.

Another thing was Colin hates PE. I did, too. I was always the last one to be picked in a team and I never was able to catch a ball.

Colin is picked on at school for being different. I was too. Spoiler alert. At the end of the book, he has made friends with one of his bullies. This can be said the same with me. A girl at school, esp in history, always threw things at me when she sat behind me. She later apologised to me, and is now my one and only friend I have I still see.

I like reading these books, as it tells me how others see what children with Asperger's/autism are like. From what I've read so far, it is accurate. So well done, Ashley and Zack.

Have you read any books featuring children or adults with Asperger's or autism? Let me know if you have and what you thought of them. I have a few others I have read and will review on here.