About our Daughter

I am mother to four wonderful daughters, ages 17, 19, 21, and 23, and wife to the greatest husband on earth. God has given us a special child to raise one who was diagnosed with early-onset bipolar disorder at the age of seven, though she showed signs of it from the age of fifteen months. She also has ADHD, Sensory Integration Disorder (sensory seeking), Dyslexia, and Non-Verbal Learning Disorder-NOS, all typical comorbidities for a bipolar child. In spite of the trials, she enjoys lacrosse, running (finished her first marathon in October of 2014!), and reading and writing her own books. I will share with you the many joys and sorrows we have faced and will face in the future with the hope that you may find better understanding about this mental illness caused by both chemical and structural abnormalities in the brain. I desire that you will be encouraged by this blog if you are also dealing with a bipolar child. Thank you for reading and sharing in our journey.

How Did You Know She Was Bipolar So Young?

I wrote a long explanation of how we came to this bipolar diagnosis in a child so young under my post of March 19th of 2009. If your child or a child you know bears similarities, please seek out a good psychiatrist and don't wait for "things to get better." Often they will simply get worse, and the longer a child is unmedicated, the more damage their brain can accrue. Early diagnoses and treatment are key to providing these children with a chance at a successful life later as a teen and an adult.
Never change, start or stop a medication without the approval of your child's physician!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

A Light at the End of the Tunnel?

In our phone conference today, Caroline brought up that she was quite anxious about knowing when she might be coming home. Her psychologist there said that this was something we probably needed to start talking about (with Bill and I), and we set up a phone conference later this week. She said that she would be asking Dr. Stone, the psychiatrist there, what other med adjustments he might want to make, if any, and to call us for a consult. It does sound like Caroline is nearing the end of her stay at the RTC. After this weekend, I am actually looking forward to having her home again. She was really changed.

She also asked us if there was anything else that we thought Caroline should work on before coming home. We both replied perfectionism. We see this as the biggest danger for her right now. And having a realistic understanding of how her sisters are going to need time to see that she has changed. They don't know how she has grown. A lot of adjustments are in store for us.

I just added up the cost of the trips we've made out to Meridell since May. They pay for one adult airline ticket once a month, and give us a discount at the Holiday Inn in Cedar Park, but even so we have spent over $800 on the hotels and car rentals alone. The meals and activities and shopping for her probably added several hundred more. Expensive trips but worth it. I am so grateful that our health insurance covers all of her RTC stay. We won't end up paying a dime, which is fantastic considering I am sure the bill is in the tens of thousands. I feel for the parents of bipolar kids whose health insurance doesn't cover RTC stays because they then have to find funding through their states and it is often a nightmare of bureaucracy and delays.



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