My Friend the Firebreather, Act II Aurora

My Friend the Firebreather, Act II Aurora

What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol, control, and certainty while raising a child with complex needs? This conversation between Wes and the unnamed host of Recovery Crone follows "fire breather" Wes through the first year of her daughter Rory’s life, as she pieces together that something significant is going on with her baby – and that the professionals around her keep brushing it off.

You’ll hear how early feeding struggles, a "weak suck", hypotonia, long stretches of "purple crying" and missed milestones were repeatedly dismissed by a young resident who implied Wes was tired, depressed, or even projecting. As Wes puts it, "Do not let anybody gaslight you," after realising through a work reflection on gaslighting that her instincts had been right all along.

The turning point comes at Rory’s one‑year check-up, when Wes marches in, calls the situation "criminal negligence" and threatens to sue. The room fills with doctors, and suddenly everyone takes her seriously. A new paediatrician quickly flags likely autism and refers Rory for occupational, speech and physical therapy and to a children’s hospital. There, a specialist confirms autism and suspects something more.

Later genetic testing shows a rare misspelling in the SRRM2 gene – so rare that Rory is currently "one of one" in an international database.

Along the way, a Polish doctor tells Wes that without cues from her baby she couldn’t have known what to do, easing years of self-blame: Rory "is exactly who she’s supposed to be from day one." Woven through is the emotional cost: working full-time in a high-pressure IT role, crying in closets, feeling like the universe picked the wrong mother, and then making the huge decision to quit work and rebuild attachment with Rory from the kitchen floor up.

If you’ve ever doubted your instincts around your child or your recovery, what might change if you treated your gut feeling as data worth defending?