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!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Best Family Vacation in Years

We got back from Hilton Head last night, and I must say that we had a great time, with no big meltdowns from Caroline at all. The kids said it was their favorite vacation since Young Life's family camp at Trail West in Colorado about seven years ago. We rented a nice time share townhouse right on a golf course with plenty of room (three and a half bathrooms!) and the kids loved being able to bike everywhere. Between the beach, the pool, the gorgeous harbors, and kayaking, golf, the petting zoo, and alligator sightings, we all had a blast. I felt so relaxed the whole time and I could tell that Bill was too. Nobody wanted to come home! We are so grateful to the Lord for this respite. To us it is so obvious that Caroline's meds are just right because our more recent past vacations, especially last year's, were frought with difficulty due to her fluctuating moods and explosive irritability. She wasn't perfect, but had normal irritations like any teenager would. Her little sisters were more of an issue most of the time!

The only bad part of the vacation was the fact that my husband and Caroline wouldn't listen to me (or the doc) about not getting saltwater on the waterproof cast. They rigged up an external covering with a plastic bag and duct tape, but her cast still got wet and I think it needs to be replaced because it began to fall apart. Oh well! If that was the worst thing that happened, I'm ok with that!

Oh, and taking both minivans certainly helped immensely. Nothing better than divide and conquer with movies on an eight hour drive!

So many of you posted while I was on vacation, and I will try to respond tomorrow. I appreciate all that you have to share! Thank you!


6 comments:

Fighting for my Children said...

Glad you all had a great time!

Hartley said...

Welcome back! Nothing more relaxing than a vacation that goes well, right? LOL Glad you guys had fun. :)

Hartley
www.hartleysboys.com

Amy said...

I am so happy for you all!

Anna said...

I am glad you had a great and well deserved vacation.

I am interested to hear your view of my current situation.

Take care,

Anna

J said...

Megan,

So pleased that you had such a wonderful family vacation!

A quick question for you -- I noticed that you have NeuroScience listed on your resources, and I was wondering if you have personal experience using them with your kids, or simply thought it might be useful to others based on Dr. Parker's recommendations?

Thanks again for your great blog!

J

CC said...

Yay! So happy to hear about the great vacation!