Let’s Talk (And Talk and Talk) About Lettuce!

Aaron had an appointment with his autism doctor this past Monday morning.  Dr. Ogden, a psychiatrist, oversees the aspects of autism that are not very much fun.  This means that she wants to talk about Aaron’s feelings and behaviors.

However, Aaron does NOT want to talk about his feelings or behaviors.  Years ago, we tried counseling sessions and it was a royal failure…not because of the therapist but because Aaron wanted to control the conversation and make it all about his movies and games and things like showing her the bump on his chest. 

Aaron would rather be poked and prodded and stuck with needles than to sit on a couch with mom and Dr. Ogden while explaining why he gets angry at home or his day group…why he reacts to people and situations with hitting or verbal insults…and what the solutions may be to said behaviors.

Aaron woke up that morning angry and frustrated, which is not the best way to go see the doctor who wants to talk about his anger and frustration.  Rarely is Dr. Ogden treated to Aaron’s humor or brightness.  Rarely am I treated to such fun Aaron attributes either on Dr. Ogden days until the visit is over and done…and we go to lunch. 

Lunch is the ONLY reason Aaron endures these talking doctor visits.

Aaron went from livid to lively as we drove to BJ’s for lunch.

You might say that Aaron can surely control his moods if he does so in a situation such as this.

But with autism, things are flipped.  Aaron’s moods control him.  You and I can perhaps overcome the heavy mood that weighs us down on certain days, but Aaron’s heavy mood puts him on a track from which he cannot jump.  He is stuck until something else redirects him.

And on Monday, part of his mood changer was in the form of lettuce.

When Aaron finished his French fries and scooted his chicken tenders around, there on his plate lay a nice piece of leaf lettuce.

Aaron tenderly picked it up, as if he was slightly scared of it.

Look at his face!  😊

Then he set it on the table.

“I’ve never seen this lettuce,” he calmly remarked.

“What do you mean, you’ve never seen that lettuce?” I asked.

“Well, it’s green!” he answered.

“Green?” I questioned.

“Well,” he explained, “some is black and some is green and some is white.  You usually get white.”

Oh, the intrigue of mixing autism with being color blind!

I can totally see that he sees all those interesting colors of lettuce.  Once again, Aaron caused me to pause and consider concepts that I would ordinarily never think about.

Aaron then held up the lettuce as if he was displaying a prized conquest.

Then he stared at it as he placed it on his plate again, studying it in such a serious way that I had a very hard time not laughing out loud.

“I didn’t order lettuce with my chicken strips,” he observed.

I explained that the green lettuce was there more for decoration than anything, which he thought was rather odd.

“What flavor is the green?” he wondered.

 I had to laugh at that one.

“Ummm, lettuce just tastes like lettuce, Aaron,” I tried to explain.  “Why don’t you eat it?”

So, Aaron very bravely took a small bite.

Which led to more bites as he looked postitively scared.

And finally, the lettuce was gone. 

Aaron survived!

I thought we had exhausted everything lettuce related there at BJ’s.

But the next night, Aaron’s sharp eyes spotted lettuce in a commercial.  Of all the food items on the screen, Aaron saw a piece of LETTUCE!!

“MOM!!” he yelled.  “There’s the lettuce I had in BJ’s!!  The brown one!!”

BROWN!!??

Now we’re on to BROWN!?

NOOOOOO!!!

I’m making an appointment with Dr. Odgen…for ME!!!

Author: Patty hesaidwhatks

I'm Patty and I write about our adult son who has Epilepsy and Autism, who still lives with my husband and me, and who is a package full of many surprises and joys and challenges and TALK! Lots of talking, which creates laughter and some other reactions as well. I also write about how God shows Himself to me in everyday life.

25 thoughts on “Let’s Talk (And Talk and Talk) About Lettuce!”

  1. Okay this is hard for you and I’m sorry, but you had me rolling with Aaron’s facial features and then your comment at the end! Go! Show the doctor the lighter side of Aaron. Oh my word! I love how the Lord gives you these silly moments to bandaid the other heartaches. Thank you for sharing this Patty.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  4. Maybe the Dr should be reading your blog so she can see Aaron’s fun side. Scrolling down and seeing his different faces with the lettuce had me cracking up! 😂 And sometimes I do have brown lettuce in my fridge. Especially when it rolls to the back of the drawer and I forget about it. 🤢😂

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  5. This is so funny Patty (though maybe not as much to you who had to directly experience it (haha). I just loved your description of Aaron not being able to control his moods as the moods control him. That wild out of control train. What a perfect way to explain impulsive behavior and anger in autism. The normal bystander, say in the grocery store, would never understand and would just be judgmental, viewing things through the prism of their own world. Not understanding. Anyway I loved this post.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I thought about you as I wrote this blog, knowing that you of all people would be able to relate to this doctor visit and to the wild train ride of autism, as you so well said. I would love to visit with you as a psychiatrist who is so familiar with autism, but even more so as my dear family member. Thank you for your constant encouragement and support, dear Barbara. ♥️♥️

      Like

      Reply

    1. His looks crack me up! So he sees the different shades of lettuce differently than we do since he’s color blind. Some shades of green look brown, some look yellow, etc. I’m not sure what kind of lettuce he saw on the screen because I looked down at that moment. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      2. My dad was color blind and while growing up we kids were very fascinated by what colors he saw, or didn’t see. My mom used lots of blue decorations at Christmas because he could see blue. She also would hang his pants and shirts together for work so that the colors matched and looked good together. If she was gone for several days, we would tell him that he better be good to us or we would mix his pants and shirts up. 😅😅

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I’ve actually told her about my blog and she asked for the blog address in the past but I have no idea if she reads it. In her defense, her job is to help with behaviors that Aaron sometimes has so that’s her main focus. It was nice, though, to leave there and relax. Thanks for reading, Nancy!

      Like

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: