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, July 22, 2012

Adjusting

We are all adjusting to life in this amazingly beautiful state of Colorado.  We have been here almost a month now.  The fires are gone and the mountains are so clear every day right from our backyard.

Caroline loves it here.  She is excited about the start of school in a few short weeks.  Already she has met some lacrosse buddies to throw the ball around at the high school just a few minutes away.  Not scrimmage, just non-contact drills.  My other two that are here are slowly getting used to living here as well.  We have thrown ourselves into church, youth group, ballet, art camp, math tutoring etc. to try to fill up their days so that aren't missing their old life as much.

We still need to find a new psychiatrist and psychologist.  So hard to know who is good and who isn't! Wish we could have taken our old docs with us!!

I will write more when school starts.  Thanks for reading and commenting!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

New Everything

Well, we have moved across the country to a new environment, new house, new school district and new everything.  We have only been here for two weeks and are slowly adjusting to a beautiful but unfamiliar place.  Yesterday I registered Caroline for the public high school around the corner from us.  I really want to believe she will do well there, but that nagging doubt persists.  We are going to try it, but as always, we are prepared to go to Plan B.  Actually I have no idea what Plan B would be.  I guess we will cross that bridge if we come to it.  She is so excited at the prospect of new friends and a top-notch lacrosse team.  We are much more cautious.  She started back with Mathnasium here but she isn't clicking with the nerdy older guys who are running the place.  They do look like mad scientists and their social skills seem to be lacking.  We might try the other Mathnasium across town if she continues to struggle to understand them.

We visited a church on Sunday that has a very active and large youth group.  She wanted to go to the YG meeting that very night, which she did as it was practically around the corner from our house.  After the meeting, she was gushing with excitement and proclaimed that this was the only youth group she would be going to.  OK.  We are not so sure this is the church we want to stay with, but she can always go to this youth group even if we end up at a different church.

Finding a new psychiatrist and psychologist is next on the list. As I am sure you understand, finding the right providers is an important key to success for kids with bipolar disorder.  I am dreading that first visit with a psychiatrist when he or she looks at her med list. Some docs get it and some really don't.  Blah!

I am also going to initiate the IEP process soon, which we haven't had to do since the 5th grade.  High school is a whole different ball game.  So much to do!

Hope your summer is going well!