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!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Brain Fog

Unfortunately, Caroline seems to be dealing with an onset of major brain fog in the last few days.  Can't think of what the cause may be as nothing has changed in her med mix and she is sleeping fine.  This fog is really affecting her school work and it isn't distractability like ADHD, it is more of a slowness of thought processes--more than usual.  I so wish she didn't have to take such high doses of Seroquel and Trileptal, which can be cognitively dulling anyhow.  But she is stable, and "normal," so we dare not touch anything.  Very frustrating to try to homeschool her when she is like this.  She stares at Spanish and Algebra like she has never seen them before. Hopefully this will pass very soon.  We have a lot to finish before then end of May and her state testing!
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2 comments:

SarahinSC said...

My son has this dulling too. It's intermittent, but was so much worse when he was on Risperdal. But, I totally understand that when they're stable that's all that really matters and unfortunately that dulling is a side effect of atypicals. Hang in there! If your C is like my C, it comes and goes and some days he "gets it" and other days he doesn't.

May 2, 2012 at 8:47 PM
GB's Mom said...

That was always my dilemma... at what price is normal.

May 2, 2012 at 9:05 PM

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