Michelle Nickleberry, Autism Education and Training for Flight Crews and Law Enforcement

Michelle Nickleberry adopted her daughters, Tori and Lexi, as a single woman.   She works as a flight attendant with a major airline, provides concealed handgun training, and works as a grievance specialist with a union.  Her ambitions are to:

1. Expand airline passenger orientation programs for kids with autism in order to reduce the chances of behaviors that officials and passengers may not understand.
2. Develop awareness programs for airline staff and police forces both to reduce the risk of harming a child and to reduce escalations that may demand resources best used someplace else.   

Michelle’s Story, Part 1 of 2:

“When I married, it was a family decision for me to leave the Dallas Police Force.  I think about going back as a reserve police officer sometimes.  Life is different now.  Now, I am a single mother of two daughters, one on the autism spectrum.  I adopted twin daughters, my kiddos, after they came into my life as foster children at only eleven days old and born prematurely.”

Michelle oriented me to that difference in her life by sharing one particular police call:

“He threw us around like we were ragdolls,” recalled Michelle, her voice steady; like the brawl must have found its place in the context of her life.  “My partner and I didn’t know if we were going to make it.  The perpetrator was so strong… extremely strong.  He wasn’t trying to stop us.  He wasn’t trying to resist us.”  Driven by rage-induced mental health issues and the inadvertent intake of laced marijuana, “He attacked us.  He tried to take our firearms.  He hit us over the head.  This was a fight for us to go home. So, it was on.  We engaged him will all the strength and tactics coming from the only source it could, God’s gift of the will to survive.

“A security guard showed up.  He had a shotgun.  He went to lay it down so that he could help us. Immediately, we told him not to lay it down.  The police weren’t necessarily appreciated in that neighborhood though we had a police room in this same complex.  He came to help, shotgun and all. Shotgun flailing at risk of firing, perpetrator kicking, punching, going for our guns… we got one cuff on him.  Other police officers arrived.   We all finally cuffed and subdued him enough to get him into the ambulance.

“My partner and I looked at one another after it was over.  Minor injuries, no hospitalization, and we were still alive.  We sat in the cruiser, looked at one another again and cried.  We followed the ambulance to the hospital.”  The perpetrator’s family probably followed as well.  They were the ones who called the 911 operator,   “… giving a warning that he was out of control.  He had attacked them first.  When we showed up, he had gone from attacking his family to attacking us.

“The incident made me more aware of my mortality, but it did not change my path.  I had joined the Dallas Police force in my early 20s.  Later, I became a detective.  I loved the rush, chasing people, figuring out what the bad guy was doing and stopping him.  I always kept in mind that it could have been my partner or me on the department’s memorial wall.

“After marriage, I left the force.  When divorced, I made an attempt to return.  But, there were too many changes.  Somewhere in all that, I earned a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology.  Then my kiddos came into my life as foster children.  As foster kids, each was required to get five shots at fifteen months old, all in one day."

Roughly, two weeks after the vaccination, Lexi seemed unaffected.  But, Tori quit talking.  She quit giving eye-contact and stared blankly.  “Tori had started saying little things like mommy and bye-bye, the little things that babies say.  She stopped talking whatsoever:  no more hugging and kissing, no more eye contact.  She reacted differently to things that I said.

“She was already behind in development and had occupational and physical therapy because she was born premature.  Both therapists thought that her lagging development was due to that condition.  I asked them about autism because, in my work, I knew about it.  The recurring comment was, ‘She is too social to have autism.’  They fought me on the autism diagnosis.  Her ability to read labels at the grocery store at age two didn’t help my argument.  So, I contacted a children’s hospital.  The hospital stated Tori needed to be at least two and a half years old before she could be tested.

“I scheduled her for testing so that the appointment fell on the first possible day she would become eligible."  Michelle continued with the prescribed care.  MEDICAID paid for care because Tori and Lexi were both under foster care.  That stopped after Michelle’s application to adopt the twins was approved.  “My insurance was used to cover the exam and the testing for autism.”

“One day at the doctor’s, I talked about how Tori crawled on one knee, her right knee, like her left leg was dead.  She pulled herself with her arms.   I don’t think I heard but four words.   Bone infection!  Death!  Hospital….  Then, I drove.  I mean…Al… seriously… I drove to the hospital!  Everything and everybody was in my way.  My car was not fast enough.

“After seven or eight hours at the hospital, the doctors ruled out a bone infection.  They did not know the cause of her awkward crawling.  An occupational therapist saw her and said that the only other time she had seen something similar was with one of her young patients who had autism .”

Click To Read Part 2


Preview Hope Comes in Pieces on Amazon:

Generation Rescue Says and Shows That "You Are Not Alone"

Jason Napolitan

Jason Napolitan is the Operations Director for Generation Rescue.  Jason is responsible for leading the operational functions required to provide resources for families of kids diagnosed with autism.   Process improvement, effective policies – he is responsible for those.  He is involved in brand management as well.  There was some concern about the short distance between my camera phone and these two.  But, I think it captures them pretty well.   

Left: Terra Smith, Author Hope Comes in Pieces  Right: Jason Napolitan, Director of Operations Generation Rescue

Candice McDonald

Below is Candice McDonald, Executive Director, Generation Rescue.  Every time I looked up, no matter what symposium I attended or keynote I listened to, whether I was down in the lobby, sending a text from a quiet nook, she seemed to be breezing  by or talking to a guest or a sponsor or a speaker. She just never stopped for three days… and all with a smile and in a pair of high heels. 

Left: Candice McDonald, Executive Director, Generation Rescue   Right, Terra

A Greener Path To Health with Ana Maria Abba

Ana Maria Abba is the mother of an eight year-old son diagnosed with autism and mitochondria issues.  Hope Comes in Pieces sometimes means finding a career or entrepreneurial endeavor to provide both an income and access to needed resources.   Ana Maria chose Ava Anderson for that purpose and advocates through her website, Greener Path To Health, http://www.greenerpathtohealth.com. She helped market for Ava Anderson products at the Autism Education Summit, 2015.

Additionally, the venue allowed her access to a great deal of information and express her empathy to the people she meets. Ana Maria’s path took her through the DAN protocol, homeopathy, and other treatments.

She says there is a spiritual component to wellness that’s important.  She is always in search of a balanced approach.

Baby Teeth by Terra Smith

Mia’s two front teeth repeatedly loosen then tighten back up.  It's been going on for the last eight or nine months.  This is due to her mitochondrial dysfunction, diagnosed in 2013.  The last cycle ended with her front teeth slanting forward.

I called her biomedical doctor.  He said other children under his care have the same problem.  He went on to say that the cycle of loosening and tightening baby teeth lasted as long as five to six years for some of the kids he treated.  So, something will have to be done eventually.  Mia’s options are limited.   She can't take a local anesthetic because of her allergies.  An anesthetist will have to put her to sleep.

Lately, one of her teeth became very loose. We wiggled it about once an hour to help it along.  She talked about getting her tooth out. I encouraged her to wiggle it with her finger without my help.  Then, I started seeing all these strings hanging from the door knobs.

I talked to her about the strings and that maybe we should use one to loosen her tooth more.  She said yes.  I asked her if she wanted me to pull it.  She answered, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

I pulled on the string.  The tooth came out of her gum but was attached to one small piece of flesh. There was a little bit of blood.  She started into a melt-down asking for a Band-Aid.  I situated her tooth with gauze.  It took me an hour and an half of explaining that Band-Aids can't go on a tooth in the mouth.  Mia was glad to share the news when the bleeding stopped, “Yea. It's not bleeding.  See.”

When I offered to pull it the rest of the way out,  she objected, "I'm scared.  I'm scared."

All the next morning we talked about her tooth.  We talked about the tooth fairy only paying her a visit once the tooth was out. Later that afternoon, Craig came home.  I talked Mia into putting another string around it.  She wasn't happy with that but kept saying that she wanted it out.  She came up with the idea of biting an apple.  With where the tooth was, that didn't seem like a good idea.  So, we stuck with the string. We prepared for the worse.  Craig and the therapist stood ready in support... I pulled. The tooth came loose.  We looked at Mia.

She said, "Oh my gosh.  Thank you.  Thank you."

When we rinsed out her mouth, she saw blood.  Her eyes teared up.  On the third rinse, all the blood was gone and her tears went away.

All that talk about the tooth fairy created problem that required me and Craig to re-write fairy standard practice.  If Mia put the tooth under her pillow, we couldn't remove it without waking her.  Mia still sleeps in an enclosed specialty bed. We talked her into leaving the tooth under a pillow on the night stand.

Video of her waking up after a visit from the Tooth Fairy is coming soon..