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!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Destabilized

Well, just as we feared, the reduction in the lithium dosage has resulted in mania.  We are going to increase the Seroquel by another 50 mg per her doc, but I am wondering if increasing Lamictal would be a good alternative.  She is beside herself about the med changes and very worried her year at school is going to be irreparably damaged by all of this.  Big blow up tonight.  Oh joy.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You might look into phosphotidylcholine and phosphotidylserine with your doctor. Do some searches on them as well as Lithium.

November 2, 2012 at 8:51 AM
marythemom said...

We went in to discuss increasing my daughter's ADHD meds and found out that she was taking double the recommended dose so we had to halve it instead of increasing. *sigh* Now she's manic/hyper and we're going to try increasing her Wellbutrin, which means several more weeks of this. *sigh* I feel your pain.

November 8, 2012 at 12:22 AM
Megan said...

marythemom, OMG that is crazy that she was taking double the dose! How is she now???

December 6, 2012 at 12:37 AM
marythemom said...

Megan - She is OK. She is pretty stable now, although she's sleeping a little more than usual and is a little edgier too. This time of year it's hard to tell what is "traumaversary"/ holiday stuff and what is med related.

December 6, 2012 at 1:16 AM

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