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, June 2, 2012

In the Zone!

I am in the zone as far as getting ready to put our house on the market.  Now that school is done (sort of) I am filled with new energy to purge, pack and prepare to sell our house and move to Colorado.  Thank goodness that my feelings have changed.  Previously, I was lacking any energy to keep sustained attention to the huge task in front of us as long as I had all of these educational issues in front of me.  But now I feel single-minded, finally!  But now I am sick, bummer.  But we are painting, fixing, rearranging, and making many trips to Goodwill.  I am looking forward to living more simply, with far less clutter, hopefully, and with more purpose to what I am doing.  Caroline is a little bored right now but she can paint, so we keep handing her things to do.  Our house is already looking so much better and I will be sad to say good-bye to the beauty of a 70 year-old, classic Colonial, even if remodeling it killed us.  Someday I would love to have an old home again, with a giant wrap-around front porch and nine-foot ceilings and wainscoting, but for the next 10 years, at least, I just want something that has everything already done to it!  Parenting a bipolar child is enough work in and of itself!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

What a coincidence. We moved to the Denver area June 7th from Houston. I found your blog when I googled antibiotics mania. Augmenting seems to trigger it. Hope you ate enjoying Colorafo as much as we are.