Jive Talkin' Superman: Adventures in Autism

By Leslie Curtis

An uplifting and inspiring book about a young man thriving in his own way, against all that life can throw at him. This book is for anyone, especially those who love someone with special needs or those who need an uplifting story. A must-read for that parent who is at the beginning of their journey with autism and is lying awake at night wondering if they can survive another day. YES, you can!! There is HOPE, and we all need someone to tell us there is HOPE!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667872056

Book preview

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This book is dedicated to

the three men in my life,

John, Zac, and Jac.

I’m hoping for 100 Years.

Jive Talkin’ Superman: Adventures in Autism

Copyright © 2022 Leslie Curtis. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-66787-204-9 (Print)

ISBN 978-1-66787-205-6 (eBook)

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted

in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other

electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of

the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews

and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Let’s Get It Started

Hero

Poop There It Is / Slip Slidin’ Away

Help! I Need Somebody

What A Wonderful World

Hickory Dickory Dock

A Moment Like This

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Save It for A Rainy Day

The Best Part of Waking Up

Ticket To Ride

Get Your Fingers Out of Your Butt

Fly Away / I Want to Get Away

How to Save a Life

Chapter 2

Shake It Off

You Don’t Bring Me Flowers

American Pie

Livin’ On a Prayer

We Are Family

Be Prepared

Shout!

I Will Survive

How Do You Like Me Now?

Jive Talkin’ (Part One)

The Rubberband Man

Chapter 3

Call Me Maybe

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

She Works Hard For The Money

A Whole New World

Unanswered Prayers

Keep Your Head Up

I Am Your Child

Just the Way You Are

Angels Among Us

I’m Still Standing

Let Me Fly

Sixteen Candles

Sleigh Ride

Just the Two of Us

Burning Down the House

Nobody Like U

Fight Song

Jesus, Take the Wheel

I Believe I Can Fly

I Can Only Imagine

Strangers Like Me

Chapter 4

Wake Me Up

I Can’t Go for That

Friends

Another One Bites the Dust

What A Man Gotta Do

That’s What Friends Are For

Calling All Angels

This Is How a Heart Breaks

Every Breath You Take / I’ll Be Watching You

The Prayer

Sharp Dressed Man

My Way

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

I Can See Clearly Now

Shining Star

Take It Easy

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Come Fly With Me

Shake Your Groove Thing

I Will Be Here For You

Life is a Highway

A Thousand Years

Chapter 5

High Hopes

If Tomorrow Never Comes

I Wanna Dance with Somebody

(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life

HALLELUJAH

Jive Talkin’ (Part TWO)

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Just Dance

Stand by Me

Livin’ la Vida Loca

Great Balls of Fire

Superman (It’s Not Easy)

Go Your Own Way

You’ve Got a Friend in Me

He’s My Son

My Wish

Acknowledgments

About the Author

More Family Photos

Introduction

This is my story about Jac. The good, the bad, and the ugly. There are stories about poop, stories about dancing, stories about friendship, and even a story about a mouse. My stories are titled after song titles because music has been very therapeutic in our 20 years of dealing with autism. Music has gotten me through many hard times, along with the ability to laugh in times of crisis. You will see that some stories are funny, some are crazy, some are serious, and a few are on the sad side. They are all in chronological order, and hopefully, you will see as you read through the book that they become more uplifting and hopeful by the end as Jac ages. Yes, the middle has some more discouraging stories, but those are about puberty, and puberty stinks for everyone! The stories are meant to make you smile and never laugh at my son or anyone with autism. He is my world, and I write these only out of love because he is laughing with me most of the time, so please don’t get offended. If you haven’t figured out what Jive Talkin’ and Superman have in common. They are both great song titles. One is by the Bee Gees and the other by Five for Fighting. If you are one of the many BUSY moms like me, you might pick this up and read a story here or there when you have a free 5 minutes, and that’s great because that is how most of us roll! Please do yourself a favor; save the last chapter for the end, whatever kind of reader you are. In writing this book, I have been overwhelmed by the progress Jackson has made over the years, and looking back at the earlier stories, I have been reminded of just how far he has come. Autism has not won. Jackson and The Curtis Family have WON.

Chapter 1

Let’s Get It Started

The beginning of it all.

Jac came into this world on October 4th, 2001. The same year as 911 amidst a time of so much fear in our country. Jac came five weeks early, wasn’t breathing, and stayed in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit for a month. I had no idea that was only the beginning of our long journey with Jac. Those first two and half years seemed like a blur because we were so sleep-deprived and just trying to figure out how to care for Jac. He had up to seven doctors at one time, and it seemed like I spent a good deal of time driving all over the Metroplex to see his specialists. I remember holding up flashcards while sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic for my oldest son to recite from the backseat to make good use of our timing. Those first two years, we just worried about Jac being delayed and medically fragile. My husband and I managed to get by those first few years until my body decided to break. Long story short, I got deathly sick and spent three long months in a hospital, and we had to move back to my hometown to live with my parents. I will be forever grateful for that time because it gave us such great quality time with my parents while my body needed to heal. Although, after several months, it was incredibly heartbreaking because we lost my father during that time and also learned of Jac’s autism diagnosis. I first noticed Jac lining his family of rubber ducks up on the edge of the bathtub all in one direction, and if I turned one duck facing the opposite way, he would quickly correct the misaligned duck. He was also taking Occupational Therapy, and the therapist noticed Jac not making eye contact with her and fixating on certain things. I am sure it was Elmo, as Jac loved everything Elmo at the time. We received the confirmation when we met our new pediatrician, and Jac kept trying to get to the sink in the exam room. He was literally trying to climb over the chair I was sitting on to get to the sink, then going under the chair to get to the sink, then trying to find a way to move the chair to get to the sink. I remember the doctor saying that when you see a child that would walk on glass or through fire to get to an object, that is autism. This was Jac. He was trying to get to that dead gum sink for whatever reason, and he spent a good part of that hour in that exam room trying to move mountains to get to that sink. Welcome to autism!

Hero

A wonderful pediatrician sent from heaven.

With a special needs child, you spend a good deal of time at numerous doctor’s offices waiting and hoping for answers to help you along your journey with your child. I constantly laugh that our second home is either at my child’s pediatrician’s office or the nearby pharmacy because those are the places we frequent the most. There will be doctors in your life that you could take or leave because they are just doing their jobs and nothing more. However, once in a blue moon, you may come across a Superhero doctor that you don’t know how in the world you got so lucky to find, and you definitely want to make sure you never lose him!

We live in West Texas, and I often refer to our city as The sticks because there is nothing but flat, brown scenery. What is unique about West Texas, though, are the people. One exceptional pediatrician exemplifies the best West Texas has to offer. His true passion is serving the special needs population. He is not only excellent at what he does, but he loves the kids he serves and their families.

After we moved from the Dallas area, our first visit with this new doctor was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Our very first meeting with him was so impressive. He spent over an hour with me getting to know my child. The doctor carefully observed Jac the entire time. Most importantly, he listened to me as I explained Jac’s lengthy medical history, even though Jac was only two and a half. After carefully listening and observing what was before him, he wrote something on a memo pad and handed it to me. It was his office phone number, cell phone number, and pager number. He told me I would need to contact him at times other than the regular office hours since I had a special needs child. He handed me this precious piece of paper. It has been 17 years, and I still have that piece of paper in my wallet. I keep it now more as a sentimental token.

Over the past 11 years, this doctor/patient relationship has grown closer and closer, and we seem more like family. The man is a genius, and there is no other way to put it. He is also a very humble, child-loving man who cares about my son and the entire family. I could give 100 stories about how this man has gone above and beyond for my family and many others in our community. Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be enough time or paper to list everything. There have been times I have taken my son to him, and he would look at me and not examine my son until I told him why I looked so bad due to my health issues. He has sent texts checking on my child after nights of seizures to see if he was ok. One time he called from a foreign country when his wife had seen on Facebook that I had posted that we were on our way to the ER with seizures. He had found a way to communicate with me via Facebook’s Instant Messager, one of the only ways to reach me. He gave me instructions into the wee hours of the morning. I later learned he had missed an event with his family that day because he was so kind to stay close to a computer until Jac’s seizures had stabilized. He has been considerate enough to know when to let me cry, pat me on the back, or even wait until a more appropriate time to talk to me about a concern of his. He has often said, I tell you what I think you can handle at the time. Yet he also knows when to tell me not to worry because everything will be fine. He has always known exactly what to do. I don’t know what our world would be like without this wonderful human being. He makes the difficult part of being a special needs parent possible and supports and guides us every step. Thank you, Dr. N, for being our family’s HERO!

Poop There It Is /

Slip Slidin’ Away

We all have it, and we all need to get rid of it!

This is something that I would venture to guess that most parents of kids with autism have dealt with at some time but are seldom brave enough to talk about. My theory is that you must laugh to keep from crying. So, the official P word for this story is, you guessed it, POOP.

As a parent, I have become accustomed to certain things: pee, boogers, blood, and poop. As Jac has aged, I had hoped he would outgrow some of the obsession or lack of obsession with this. From what I understand, it’s not unusual for a child with autism to be delayed with potty training, especially for a boy.

During our journey with autism, I have cleaned up my share of poop, especially after 14 years. Luckily, it has come in phases, making it easier for my husband and me. The poopy diapers, the not-so-fun playing in the poop phase, or maybe the I want to get out of the poop so that I will smear it on the carpet and wall phase. We then proceeded to the, I am scared to poop in the toilet phase, so Jac would not poop until his poop formed into the size of a baseball. Jac would eventually lie somewhere in the corner of the house and make grunting noises, like a woman having a baby. With these baseball-sized poops happening at unknown locations, Jac also began inconspicuously taking the poop out of his diaper or underwear.

Our computer desk was set up in our living room next to our sofa. With the computer desk set up, we also had the fax machine/printer next to it to have everything in one handy location. One evening I was walking through the living room to sit on the sofa at the far end. My husband was sitting on the closer end by the computer desk when something suddenly caught my eye. Something seemed out of place, and I realized what it was. I calmly exclaimed, Crap. My husband seemed confused because there were no words to follow my exclamation. I repeated the word and used hand gestures, pointing at the fax machine. There, sitting atop the fax machine, was, you guessed it, a baseball-sized turd. Luckily, it didn’t have a strong odor, and thank goodness, no one else was at