Autism and Health

"Hello, this is Matthew calling," said the phone message "I want to talk to my mother about something. Tell my mother to call me back."
Matthew is 25 and lives in a supported living program with Camphill Communities California near Santa Cruz, California, less than a two hour drive from our home in Lafayette.
When I called Matthew, he sounded quiet--maybe a little homesick. He talked about Roy Orbison and David Lee Roth, and about the weather in Germany.
"Didn't you want to talk to me about something?" I asked.
"My stomach is a problem," he replied, "and I don't want to talk about it any more." After probing a little, I learned that Matthew had been in pain for a week with what turned out to be a flareup of colitis, a condition he has had since childhood. My mind raced.