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, May 1, 2011

Yes, She Showed Up

Yes, Caroline did show up eventually, and she had been at her friend's house, I think.  I am not feeling a lot of warm fuzzy feelings towards her right now.  I love her, I am crazy about her, but I am not liking her right now if you know what I mean.  I am just weary of the constant vigilance over her whereabouts and her school work.  Just tired.  Looking forward to the summer and the end of school, but not looking forward to even less of a regular weekly schedule.  Wish we could afford to put her in camp all summer, but that isn't possible.  Sometimes you just wish they were someone else's responsibility for a while, even though they are always ours on some level. This morning we had a big battle over the length of her shorts for church.  I don't mind longer shorts for church (we live in a beachy community) but I do mind short-shorts and she proclaimed she had absolutely nothing else to wear except said short shorts that were beach attire only.  Arrggh!! So we went shopping for appropriate shorts this morning instead of going to church.  Why?  Because after this morning I would have forgotten about this issue again until next Sunday an hour before church and we would be right back here again.  So I said, forget it, I am doing this now and I don't want to here any more excuses for not going to church!! Enough said!

 My mom is coming into town this week and I haven't seen her face to face in two whole years.  I hope that her visit will be a good one and that my kids will put their best foot forward, help clean up the house, be polite to Grammy, and that we will just make good memories.  Too much to ask?

3 comments:

GB's Mom said...

I am happy to hear she was safe. I well remember MK during those years. {{{Hugs}}}

Meg said...

Oh trust me, I hear you. We had a good long stretch with my son where he was doing really well and now I feel like we are sliding backwards this past week or two with our ability to trust him, give him freedom, etc. It is so frustrating and tiring :(

The Accidental Mommy said...

I know what you mean!