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!

Monday, March 9, 2015

Trying Gluten Free for Migraines

With a big uptick in daily migraines, we are looking for every possible cause.  On her own, she decided to try going gluten free for a while to see if this will make a difference.  I had to eliminate gluten and dairy two years ago and found that my digestive issues miraculously disappeared, but not the migraines.  Mine are definitely weather related.  Hers seems to be weather and who knows what.  We watched her get a sudden migraine right after finishing her birthday dinner at a restaurant on Saturday, so the food connection seems plausible.  Might be time to get a complete sensitivity test done.
Posted by at

2 comments:

katie said...

I'm so glad to see things are going well for you all - been wondering about how caroline was doing lately. Thanks for updating! Your blog continues to be such a help for me!

April 6, 2015 at 11:15 AM
apamookowa said...

How severe are the headaches but I like your foresight to put the connection with the food. Did you find out if the food could be responsible

September 21, 2015 at 2:58 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)