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!

Friday, March 1, 2013

Slowly Getting Better

Oh, I am so glad for this blog!  I am so glad that I have a place to vent without judgement!  I have to be careful what I say on Facebook.  And sometimes I can't even pick up the phone to call someone to talk because it is just too hard.  I know you know what I mean if you deal with this kind of heartache every day.  You just don't want to talk about it because there is too much to say.

The concussion doc cleared her for gradual return to play.  Yes, praise God!  But I couldn't even rejoice over this yesterday because I have been holding my breath for so long that I still can barely breathe.  I just felt numb.  I think the only close analogy is if your child is suffering from a life threatening illness (which she is actually) and a doctor comes in and says that their blood count looks good, for now.  A little dramatic, but when you have a child who suffers every day, and has so little that is positive in their lives, and that one thing might be taken away, you as a parent cling to that hope as well.  Could it be an idol, something that has too tight of a grip on us?  Yes, I know that it could.  Life is more than a sport, I agree wholeheartedly.  Far more.  But I have a sick child.  With no friends.  And major academic struggles. She needs this.

The IEP head, again the most amazing gem in the world, has told Caroline's teachers to not count her missing assignments as part of her grades right now, so that her ability to qualify to play lacrosse isn't jeopardized.  Yes, she is an angel.  God has put her in our lives.  Just want to cry.

We will try to put Caroline back in school next week for just an hour or so at a time, to see if these glasses counteract the fluorescent light sensitivity  I know I said we were leaning toward just homeschooling her, but we decided that we need to give it one last try.  She needs to be able to deal with fluorescent light at some point because life is full of it everywhere.

Thank you for praying.  I felt it.

Megan


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, great news. Take a breath! :)

Katie said...

How's this week been? I've been thinking about Caroline a lot (and you too) and wondering how it is going. :)

Megan said...

Thank you so much. Katie, she is doing better this week, more chipper since learning she can now work out with the team and do basic drills. We also increased her Seroquel by 50 mgs, a small amount, but things were so bad last week. She still has so much work to catch up on, so her grades are iffy right now and the school won't let her play with more than one D, or even one F. She has all Cs and above right now. But quarter exams are next week so who knows what could happen. We have discovered that she works best in a library.

Laddie said...

Hello,

I'm a 30 year old woman diagnosed with Bipolar I when I was 13. I've been slowly reading your blog and can really feel everything your daughter goes through. You do a beautiful job taking care of her. I don't know if you ever think of changing her antipsychotic but I'm on one right now that is MAGIC. It has saved my life, controlled my delusions and my paranoia and occasional hallucinations and helps me sleep. The name of it is Saphris and I wish that more people knew about it. It's pretty new but, and this bears repeating, MAGIC.

My whole medication regimen is 10mg of Saphris, 300 mg Wellbutrin, 150mg Lamictal, 10mg of Celexa.

Megan said...

Thank you! I had heard of Saphris and actually at one point I think we were going to switch from Seroquel to Saphris and I don't know why we didn't. it is definitely on a short list of alternatives for her. Thank you for the reminder! You are a blessing to me. :)

Katie said...

My daughter likes working in the library too. I guess because it's quiet and she loves to read. Being surrounded by books may feel comforting! :) continuing to pray for her and your family. :)

Katie said...

Oh that's good! My daughter likes working in the library too. It's quiet and surrounded by books (she loves to read). :) continuing to pray for her and the rest of your family.