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!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Shoe Dropped Last Night

After I posted my blog last night, I was headed off to bed when the phone rang.  Caroline was in hysterics about two girls on her unit who were harassing her. She could not be calmed down, but just ranted and hyperventilated about how this wasn't going to work, that we had to come get her RIGHT NOW, she couldn't keep up with the points and rewards system.   Bill and I were not ready for this, but we knew that something would happen sooner or later.  We talked to the nurse about the situation, assured Caroline that in our phone conference tomorrow with her psychologists both here and there that this problem would be addressed, etc.  Nothing we could say made her less hysterical.  I asked her if they had made a med change, but they hadn't.  She just sounded so unreasonably paranoid.  The meeting today starts in about an hour, so I am hoping she is better today and that we can come to a resolution.  I am afraid that the constant begging to come home that we have dealt with in the past has started now, and that wears us down so fast.  As a parent you know this is best for them, but your heart breaks anyhow when your child is so far away and so distressed.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)