#148 Triplet C

"My name is Wendi, and I'm a mom of triplets, 2 yrs 4 months old, born at 33 wks. All three are SID. I didn't recognize it in one daughter [C, subject #148] right away because she's not as severe as the other 2 and also her SID symptoms vary so widely from day to day that I kept second-guessing myself. But we're on the right track now with all three."

(Wendi [subject #147], Yahoo health - Sensory Integration Dysfunction - A site for parents of children with S.I.D. - new member intro, October 3, 2002)

In her first post to the Ezboard forum Visual snow or static from 2003, Wendi Triplet Mom related about her daughter C: "My 3 yr old daughter [subject #148] is telling me she sees 'sparkles' [B.4] lately, but isn't verbal enough yet to tell me much more about them. She tells me they are different colors, change color, moving 'this way and that' or away from her. She's not afraid of them, but says she shouldn't eat them and I shouldn't touch them. Gets very upset if I put my hand out to try to help her tell me how far away they are. She does NOT see them all the time."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Ezboard forum Visual snow or static – Archive - Thankful I found you!, August 19, 2003)

"She [subject #148] was told to tell me whenever she has them [B.4], or a teacher if she is at school. She was supposed to draw a picture of them every time she saw them, but she has not understood. Occasionally... a few times a day sometimes, and other times she can go for weeks without seeing them. They are transitory."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Email to Klaus Podoll, July 13, 2006; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

During a follow-up three years later, she recorded: "I am not sure if my daughter [subject #148] has visual snow, and not sure if you still want me to answer the survey once you see the below. She continues to see the colored lights [B.4] (6 yrs old now), and they are not associated in any way with headaches. [They usually last about 20 minutes at a time.] She has been to a few doctors, one a retinal/vitreous specialist (who I also see), and the only diagnosis visually is visual migraines [B.4], no other problems they can find. She is also diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and ADHD, and is gifted. She also sees starbursts around lights at night. We both have gone through testing for auto-immune diseases recently with negative results."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Ezboard forum Visual snow and static – Discussion - Familial aggregation of VS - Wendi Triplet Mom – follow-up, July 11, 2006; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll, using information from Wendi Triplet Mom's Email to Klaus Podoll, July 13, 2006)

"My daughter C [subject #148] has occasional visual migraines [B.4], starbursts around lights all the time. EEG – negative; auto-immune testing – negative."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Email to Klaus Podoll, July 12, 2006; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"I included all three triplets [C, L and M] here because they all see the starbursts around lights, I am not sure about other visual symptoms for L [subject #149] (he has a diagnosis of autism) and M [subject #150] (she has a diagnosis of autism, ADHD, Anxiety-NOS, lazy eye, astigmatism in both eyes), they are not as verbal as C [subject #148] but they all drew the starbursts for me and they are all different number of lines extending from the light so I believe they are all really seeing them."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Email to Klaus Podoll, July 12, 2006; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"When I realized that the starbursts I was seeing were not 'normal' I started asking people if they see starbursts, and asked the children if they see them. Everyone except my children said no. This was at about 3 yrs old. I drew pictures of headlights we were looking at with 4 lines coming from them and asked if they see this, they each drew more lines, each was a different number of lines."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Email to Klaus Podoll, July 13, 2006; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

C [subject #147], Vision, July 13, 2006. © 2006 Wendi Triplet Mom (larger image see here)

"I have asked them if they see static and L [subject #149] and M [subject #150] say no, but C [subject #148] is giving me a description of what she sees right now [B.8], ONLY when her eyes are closed (I had her look at black things and she does NOT see them when her eyes are open): 'A hundred and million billion white dots that move back and forth very fast and sometimes they are inside blue dots, on black' and she is moving her hand all around as if she were scribbling on a page with a crayon... all moving in a different direction from each other. I showed her this website and she says it is only when she closes her eyes and it does not move that way, but squiggling all over. She does NOT see this with her eyes open. I had her draw how the dots move, it is attached. All 'hundred million billion' of them are moving in different directions in this general motion."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Email to Klaus Podoll, July 13, 2006; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"My 6 yr old daughter [subject #148] who only sees snow when she closes her eyes has trouble falling asleep too and it got me thinking... "

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Ezboard forum Visual snow and static – Discussion - VS with eyes closed? Trouble falling asleep?, October 19, 2006)

"C [subject #148] is the one who has trouble falling asleep, yes, and the one I still need to make the drawing of the lights. You got her picture of what the snow does when she closes her eyes, right? I sent that a while ago. I finally got C to draw pictures of the colored lights she sees, and realized they are after-images, not really lights... she was drawing pictures of things around the room but didn't realize they are the same shape as the things around the room because they were opposite color of what the things are. Anything light colored she has after-images and they last several minutes. Wendi "

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Ezboard forum Visual snow and static – Discussion - VS with eyes closed? Trouble falling asleep?, October 20, 2006)

C [subject #147], Headlights of car at night, 2006. © 2006 Wendi Triplet Mom (larger image see here)

"Here is the headlights picture from C [subject #148]. Sorry, she feels cars have faces so she drew the face on there."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Email to Klaus Podoll, November 8, 2006; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"I figured out why she says cars look like faces... the starbursts are 'eyelashes'! I resent it yesterday, did you get it?"

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Email to Klaus Podoll, November 18, 2006)

"BTW there was snow on the TV last night and I asked my 3 kids if they can see the little black and white dots blinking on the TV. They said yes.

I asked them to look around the room and tell me if they see it anywhere else. They all said no. I asked if they could TRY to see it anywhere else. They all said they could only see it on the TV."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Ezboard forum Visual snow or static - Discussion - VS in dreams, June 12, 2007)

"That is C [subject #148] that sees the VS-like images with her eyes closed (it is sort of like VS, but not, she has millions of colored dots that move all over the place.) C also sees the starbursts on lights at night."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Daughter seeing patterns, October 22, 2007; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"I have been talking to Triplet C [subject #148] the past few days about her 'dots'. What she is saying now sounds like she is seeing colored VS. She says she sees a million tiny colorful red, blue and yellow dots and they all move around together, like they are stuck together. She is going to try to make some pictures for me over the weekend. She used to only see the dots when she had her eyes closed (about a year ago I guess?) but now she is able to see them in shadows with her eyes open. She was saying in one shadow she only saw a clump of yellow dots. She also says that with her eyes closed if she thinks of some things the dots go away. I have to investigate further, but don't want to push too hard either."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Daughter seeing patterns, October 30, 2007; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"Triplet C [subject #148] told me something the other day you might be interested in. She says when she tastes things, they are numbers. Like they MEAN numbers somehow. For example, she tasted something new the other day (can't remember what! Wish I could!) and she said 'Oh that tastes like a 3'.

She says she does NOT taste things when she sees numbers though.

Can synaesthesia be one way like that? And how would she know what a 3 tastes like if she does not taste anything when she sees a 3? Too bad she is only 7 yrs old and she cannot explain it better! She says this happens with all tastes, though... they all are numbers."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Synaesthesia? Ksomething, January 27, 2008; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"It is taste, not the smell, that produces the number. I have been doing a little research (not much due to time constraints) and it seems this is not a very common form of synaesthesia, in fact I have not found a reference to taste/numbers yet, but will keep looking when I get the chance.

I will try to do the list with her [subject #148] over the next week as she eats different foods. Thanks for the idea! I will try just smelling the foods too, since smell is a huge part of taste, then having her taste the foods...

I think this has been going on for a while, but she just mentioned it out loud the other day. I did ask and she said it has always been like this!"

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Synaesthesia? Ksomething, January 27, 2008; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"Oh... I just asked her [subject #148] again... sometimes it is letters not numbers... and she said it started in early January!

We've got 2 so far... (she was just eating lol)
Cherry pop tarts = letter C = a feeling of 'blocked up'
Cold apple juice = letter L = 'sweet'

It will be interesting to see if other sweet things are the letter L. I didn't realize there were other things associated with the tastes too. She says just smelling pop tarts or apple juice or anything else does not make her feel the letters, she must taste them.

But she did say last time that she had always had this, not sure which one to go by!"

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Synaesthesia? Ksomething, January 27, 2008; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"She [subject #148] cannot remember the association unless she is actually eating the food, not from smelling it or looking at it, so I'm trying to remember to ask her while she is eating. I have asked several times about repeats, and they are consistent. Interestingly... I am finding they are associated with capitals and lower cased letters, too. Only one repeat on a letter so far with two different foods which are similar in some ways - a capital G seems to be associated with two different crunchy cereals when served in milk, one described as 'crispy and sweet' the other described as 'rough and bumpy'. I'm wondering if it is more of a texture thing, because the two things taste completely different... haven eaten both cereals myself either of them could be described as crispy and sweet or rough and bumpy."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Synaesthesia? Ksomething, January 30, 2008; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"I have a longer list of foods, but she [subject #148] was very sick for 2 weeks and she can't taste when she is sick and I did not trust her taste buds for a while afterwards either... well for most of those 2 weeks she was not even eating! I was just beginning to ask her again, and now she is sick again, and so am I this time... the whole house is... it is awful.

Anyway, here is the list. Like I said, a lot of times I'm so concentrated on getting the meal out that I forget to ask what letter the food is, so forgive me for not getting all the things we have eaten. One must ask her while she is actually eating it, there is no memory of it afterwards."

(Wendi Triplet Mom [subject #147], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Synaesthesia? Ksomething, March 2, 2008; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

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