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Show Monday, Nov. 8, 2010 Page 5 AggieLif• Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.utahstatesman.com Local author tells of journey with Autism By ALEXANDRA EVENSEN staff writer The average 2-year-old can speak more than 100 words. By 3, that number jumps to anywhere from 200 to 1,000. Michael Swaner never hit those milestones. In 32 years he has never spoken a word. As an infant, Michael was diagnosed with severe lowfunctioning autism, a neurological disorder that impedes brain development. More than one million people in the United States are affected by autism, though only a small percentage of those cases are as severe as Michael's. "If there's one thing you don't get enough of with autism, it's affection," said Michael's mother Ruth Swaner, USU graduate and author of the book "Words Born of Silence." The book, Swaner's third, is about her personal journey in dealing with the anger, denial, acceptance and what she likes to call "over-dedication" of autism. "One day my oldest son came up to me and said 'We're tired of helping you take care of Michael,"' she said. This was a turning point. She realized that she was so caught up in Michael's needs that she wasn't meeting the needs of her family or herself. "She's been through a lot with her son," said Margaret Jacobs, a friend of Swaner's who has worked with autistic children in the Netherlands. "She's gotten through it with faith and friends." In his childhood, caring for Michael was a 24-hour-a-day task. Swaner said often one of the most pronounced symptoms of autism is a bizarre obsession with certain items. Unfortunately for Swaner, Michael's childhood fixations were with water, dirt, and his own feces. One night, she woke up and he had smeared his feces all over the wall. Another time, when the Swaners were remodeling their current home in Smithfield, she left Michael in the living room while she went to change her clothes. Hearing some unusual noise, she walked down the stairs to find that Michael had taken all of the dirt out of her flower pots, mixed it with water and coated the walls in mud. "I simply cried," she said. "He didn't know the difference between right and wrong, he just liked the texture." Not knowing what to do, she called her new neighbor Christina Greene, who she had never met. Christina had a son named Luke who, like Michael, suffered from severe autism. Even at the prompting of close friends, Swaner had resisted meeting her. "If she hadn't fallen apart like I had, I didn't want to meet her," Swaner said. Christina immediately came to her aid, gathering neighbors to help clean up the mess. By the time Swaner came back down the stairs, the mess was clean, Michael was being watched by a neighbor, and there was a fresh loaf of bread sitting on the counter. It was the start of a 25-year friendship, or as Swaner puts it. "a 25-year journey helping autistic children." "I learned I didn't have to be a perfect Mormon mother," Swaner said. "I learned to ask for help." Michael's autism was severe enough that at age 13 he was placed in a group home that could meet his needs. However, there are many autism-diagnosed students who live fully functional lives and attend school full time. For students whose needs may often fly under the radar, there are resources all over Cache Valley and at USU. Diane Baum, director of the Disability Resource Center, said the center is open to any student that needs help. This includes those who have any form of autism. "We look at every individual case," Baum said. "We've even had graduate students with autism." Students may qualify for extra time on tests, or a private exam room. It all depends on their needs, she said. Even though Michael is no longer living at home, his journey is far from over. He still visits his parents on occasion, and comes home for family holidays. Now that Ruth and her husband are in their 60s, bringing him home is a challenge. "The home can do fun things for him that we couldn't do like shopping, movies, and going to fairs," she said. Although it has been a long road, Swaner said she wouldn't change what she's been through. She says it's because of Michael that she discovered her ability to write. Although at first she wrote only therapeutically in jour- I See AUTISM, page 6 MICHAEL SWANER POSES, second from left, with his father and two brothers. Michael's mother Ruth Swaner, a Logan native, has published a book about raising a son with severe Autism. photo courtesy of RUTH SWANER Lab takes the poison out of oisonous plants By NIKKI LIVES staff writer THE POISONOUS PLANT LAB keeps and researches plants that are poisonous both to humans and animals. The lab uses the information gathered to treat diseases such as fungus and cancer. JON LARSEN photo Lurking in a quiet corner of campus, tucked away behind the soccer field, is a poisonous plant research lab. The lab contains plants poisonous to humans and animals alike, and the researchers at the lab are dedicated to finding these plants and taking the poison out of them. Kip Panter, supervisory animal research assistant said, "Poisonous plants are all around us, interacting with us in one way or another." Panter said there are three types of interaction: herbal, accident and intent. Herbal interaction with poisonous plants could come from everyday herbs that people don't know are poisonous. Some people find themselves interacting with poisonous plants by accident, stumbling upon them in the mountains or wild. Also, some people interact with poisonous plants with intent, namely, plants that can be used as drugs. However, Panter says that "the poison is in the dose." Some poisonous plants can be consumed in small doses, but a larger dose of the plant poison could be potentially fatal. The mission of the USDA Poisonous Plant Research Lab on campus is agriculture, Panter said. The lab studies the natural toxins in plants and how they affect livestock around the country. The lab focuses on the rangelands in the West, but can also have effects around the nation and "has an international impact, as well," Panter said. The lab collaborates with land grant universities like USU, and was established at USU in 1955 to work with range and livestock, Panter said. According to the Poisonous Plant Research Lab website, a few of the projects they are working on include researching the poisoning of livestock by various larkspur plants, the investigation of lupine-induced crooked calf disease, and research on the locoweed in the rangelands of New Mexico. "The mission is mainly agriculture and livestock," Panter said, "But we also have what I like to call 'spin-off' benefits from the plant research." The spin-off benefits come from researching the toxins inside the plants, taking them out, and attempting to use them for the purposes of good. "The poisonous plants are valuable resources that are virtually free," Panter said. Some spin-off benefits include ways to treat fungus, cleft palate and even cancer. Panter said one research project leading to a beneficial result came from the discovery of a genetic inhibitor called cyclopamine. "The cyclopamine caused a large birth defect in sheep, causing them to have only one eye," said Panter. "We isolated this and found that it inhibits the same genetic pathway that causes some cancers." In cooperation with a pharmaceutical company, the lab is now testing the effects of cyclopamine on pancreatic cancer, but Panter said the tests are still in progress so there is no information on if it works. Panter said the Poisonous Plant Research Lab consists of a team of 10 scientists, all from different backgrounds, to research the plants. From toxicologists to chemists to biologists, the lab uses many resources to help farmers and livestock owners figure out what plants are poisoning their livestock, why the plants are poisonous and what ranchers can do to prevent it. "The lab is a multidisciplinary approach to solving plant problems in the Western U.S.," I See POISON, page 7 |
