He ate WHAT?!

As most of you know, I work for the Communication Disorders (formerly known as Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology which is a very long and difficult thing to say for those who need the services) Graduate Program at BYU. One of the professors in the department invited me to a lecture given by a very special guest with a very special, amazing, bizarre, inspirational and almost unbelievable story...

Her husband left when her youngest of three sons was only a few months old. Soon afterwards, that son was diagnosed with a combination of two diseases to an extent that no one else in the world has a condition even close to his. He suffers from Autism, Pica, and Prader-Willi Syndrome. Autism is fairly common, so I'm sure most of you are familiar with its effects. But Prader-Willi Syndrome is, among other things, a severe preoccupation with food, and an insatiable appetite. Well, Pica manifests itself in the craving and consumption of non-food items. Take a moment to think about how disastrous a combination like that can be. Yep.

She showed us pictures of some of the things her son (who is now 18) loves to eat. When people tell you to finish your plate, usually you would just finish the food. No, he eats the plate...and most of the fork. His "chocolate" is a battery...he bites it in half and sucks out "the juice". He eats through sheet rock to get to the "cotton candy" underneath (as a result, his mum is an expert at replacing drywall & sheet rock...she's VERY positive about the whole thing). Of note is the fact that he has never had a cavity. His stomach has been pumped numerous times, but he's never had a cavity!
One story that she shared with us was when he was just a crawling baby, she had to use the bathroom so badly (and she'd gotten so fast at doing it) that she thought he'd be okay for the few seconds she was gone. Turns out when she got out she smelled gas...no bathroom humour here, actual gas. He had bitten right through the gas pipe and they had to wait for the gas company to come and shut it off (turns out they were planning to shut it off anyway, as she hadn't been able to pay the bill).
What overwhelmed me about this woman was her amazingly positive attitude and her unshakable faith. She had learned long ago that you can fight against what you're given, or you can accept it. You can cry when your teenager eats the Nursery crayons, or you can say "It all comes out in the end". Which, in fact, she does...she just calls the Nursery on Mondays and tells them she owes them magenta, periwinkle and cornflower. She was so inspirational in the way she accepted the challenges she's been given, that I think no matter what happens to me, or what kind of appetite my children develop (thanks mostly to Brandon) I will always be able to think of her and say, It's not that bad, or maybe It all comes out in the end!