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!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

What is Causing Blurred Vision?

Caroline said this morning that she is having double vision or blurred vision. We are wondering if too much Lamictal is to blame. She is on a fairly high dose, 425mg, so we may need to back her down slowly. Lab work on Monday may also help to pinpoint the source. High blood sugar can cause blurred vision, and since Seroquel has been implicated with causing diabetes, we have to keep an eye on this. We should have had the labs done over a month ago. My fault, really, I just couldn't seem to squeeze yet another appointment in, but that is a lame excuse.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Does the vision improve if she covers one eye? Double vision is awful...So sorry she's going through this.

Accidental Expert said...

Funny you should mention this. My daughter has been complaining about vision problems for some time now, even though she checked out OK in her last eye exam. I'll have to mention it to her DR.

We are always late on our labs too. Life just gets too hectic. Hope she gets some relief soon.

CC said...

My daughter mentioned about a month ago that she's been seeing blury. But she's never had vision problems before. And she hasn't complained about it since. I wondered if her meds could have something to do with it.

Megan said...

We did back down the Lamictal by 25mg, and she said the blurred vision went away, so maybe that was it.

Megan said...

We had to move her back to 425mg after trying to drop the extra 25 mg for blurred vision. She became less stable without it. I guess we do what we have to.