We watched the report on this on ABC News last night. At the end they said that they could have drug treatments in 5 to 10 years. I hope so. And I hope the treatments are effective for adults as well as young children.
This article says that the incidence of autism in Britain is 1 in 100. It is estimated to be 1 in 150 here in the U.S. It is 1 in 94 in New Jersey, one of the states used in calculating the U.S. estimate.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6369347.stm

Not a good day, coping wise. No real reason in particular. No spectacular meltdowns. No screaming in stores.. It is just that today -- right now -- the prospect of dealing with autism for the rest of my life is almost more than I can take. I don't blame the girls. It isn't their fault. And if you accept the teachings that we plan out the circumstances of our lives before we are born and that everything that happens is needed to accomplish our life goals -- and I do accept those teachings, hard as it is -- then I have to acknowledge that this is what I signed up for. Right now, that doesn't help.
So, I'll suck it up and soldier on, just like I have for the last 20 years. Even though, barring a medical breakthrough or Divine Miracle, I can hope for nothing but more of the same for the rest of my life. I might be able to claim a tiny portion of the dreams I had 22 years ago before Autism became the elephant in the living room but that is all....

I gotta go hug my kid....

MoonCat again, this time with 50% less inflammation! Thanks. It's nice to know that my situation isn't as bad as I thought. I just had a difficult day yesterday and the hurt still lingers. I just don't know how my family puts up with this. I just want to feel better, that's all.

Damn autism! Me===> <===Autism

I have written a prose in the memorial section if you're interested...

Here's another link. Research like this gives me hope that someday, Spirit will be able to tell me that she is thinking....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6245742.stm

     The first post on this thread was made on New Year’s Day, 2007. Here it is, a year later and I find myself looking at the possibility that in 2 to 3 years, both MoonCat and Spirit could be cured -- completely and absolutely cured -- of autism. What a difference a year can make. Of course, once cured what will they -- and others like them, do? The first practical thing will be for them to fill in the gaps in their educations so they can get their GEDs. Once those are in hand, they and we can think about further education. MoonCat has her goal: The Herron School of Art in Indianapolis. She has the talent for a scholarship, maybe a full scholarship. We will have to see what is available when the time comes.    
     SpiritFire’s future is more of a mystery. If I were to guess based on her current, “non-geek” interests, I would say medical school. I’ve lost count of the number of times we have found her in the bookstore reading a medical reference or a book on anatomy. Whenever one of us has a cut or something, she is the one that brings the first aid kit and starts “doctoring” us. So, yeah, we could be paying for medical school in a few years.
     More tricky is getting them up to speed in social development. Moonie finds the prospect rather daunting and I can’t blame her. The possibilities I outlined -- living on her own, the full range of relationships, the possibility of a family of her own -- are overwhelming when you consider them from her viewpoint. She says that she can’t imagine herself pregnant. I told her that many, MANY young women and girls feel the same way and find themselves in that very condition so it isn’t an uncommon reaction! I’m expecting that the agencies that have been dealing with the rising tide of autistics will switch gears and address the needs/problems of the newly cured. They probably won’t manage it as quickly as needed but we’ve been dealing with agency inertia for a couple of decades now so we’re used to figuring it out on our own. It will be a completely new field. I can’t think of any other large group that has required this level of “education” in purely social interaction. And you can bet that once the cure or cures becomes available, the parents and/or guardians will move heaven and earth to get it so there will literally be hundreds of thousands of people ranging from children to adults in their forties and fifties needing these services.  The littlest children will have the easiest time of it, naturally. They will learn as we all have in the process of growing up. It is the older ones, the teens and adults, who will need the most help.  As a side note, Moonie has already said that she would volunteer to be a test subject for a cure. As her guardians, we would consent to both girls participating in such research.  I’m not going to complain about the challenges though. There appears to be a real chance that my girls can have normal lives -- men to love them, children of their own, work that they love and do well.  Those goals are worth anything we have to do to help them achieve them. And that Skywise and I will, someday in the far distant future, be able to go to our graves without the agony of wondering what will happen to our daughters when we are gone.