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!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Messed Up

Caroline is simply that right now: messed up. Since she missed that morning dose a few days ago, her sleep has been affected, and today she AGAIN missed her morning dose because she felt sick when she woke up, so she went back to bed. I didn't catch her in time to give her the meds. Then she came back downstairs a few hours later, still feeling bad, laid down, said she felt nauseated, so I gave her imodium, told her to rest before she took her meds since she said she thought she would throw them up. This was around noon. I had to run out to the grocery store but I called her a little while later to ask her to please take the meds now. I come home an hour later to find her gone on a walk with the dog and her morning meds in the bowl. What!!?? Oh, I was piping hot mad. When she got back, I lit into her about not taking them and that it was almost 2 o'clock now. She finally took them, but the rest of the day she was really "off" meaning belligerent, spiteful, reactive, and defiant about everything. She even snuck away to play wall-ball when I went to work, after I told her she couldn't, ignoring the school work that was due tomorrow. Arrggh!!! I sent her to bed early to get up and finish everything in the morning.

I hate days like this. And I won't even go into the machinations I went through to get my youngest to do her homework before ballet, and it still didn't get done.

Arrggh!!!

2 comments:

SarahinSC said...

I'm sorry. Days like that are not fun at all and the best thing you can hope for is a good night's sleep to wake to deal with a new day. Hugs to you!

Fighting for my Children said...

Sounds like u had a rough day. I hope tomorrow is better.