Navigating the ER as an Autistic Person

ERs as an Autistic person. This is the first time I was admitted to a hospital from the ER post autism diagnosis. Submitted for possible sepsis and autonomic nervous systems issues (I think POTS but I haven't gotten a doctor to take me seriously yet while they are understandably focused on the sepsis symptoms. Would love advice on self advocacy). I've gotten a variety of reactions when I tell people I'm autistic. The best so far has been accepting the knowledge without any comments or facial changes. Mostly, people were confused. They didn't see why it was relevant. When I told them why it was relevant, I could feel a large gap in my knowledge of myself and experience as an autistic person and their education and understanding. One tech fumbles for the polite words to say and stumbled with "oh..ah...do you mean like..mild autism?" and i understood what he was trying to say is it didn't look like I had as many visible needs in the moment that he could help with. But what he didn't see was the extent i had gone to accommodate myself already. I had ear plugs. I asked them to turn the lights off and keep the door closed. I wasn't making as much eye contact. I was asking for continuous clarifying questions when I couldn't follow conversations smoothly. When autism was medically relevant, it was easiest to describe autistic traits without saying autism. Describing I have low interoception so if there are common physical complaints, I often won't be able to report them. Saying I have sensory processing issues and the nurses responding with turning all my monitor screens off or turned around when they are gone, turning sound off, and making the room dim. they even put a sign on my door. They didn't need to know I was autistic to accommodate me better. In fact, they accommodated me best when I didn't say I was autistic. But I'm also realizing how much of a sensory nightmare being in the hospital is and it almost made me have a melt down. All of the things sticking to and inside my body, all the machines ticking, all the uncertainty in time and place. All the unfamiliar. The different foods.