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, June 8, 2009

A Questioned Diagnosis

I belong to an online support group through the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation.  The moms in this group have been a huge source of information and encouragement to me.  Often, they have been through medication trials that we may be facing and have a lot of anecdotal advice.  Yesterday, one of these moms, who works with a neurosurgeon, emailed that she would caution me about the QEEG and the diagnosis of "cerebral dysrythmia."  She says that in the field of neurology that diagnosis would refer to epilepsy, and that the report we received could be interpreted differently by other doctors, basically stating that the report may not be valid.  So now I am wondering if the doctors at Meridell know what they are doing.  They seem very confident, but now I have this other opinion and I don't know what to think.  Caroline's doctor put her on the amantadine in response to this "abnormal" QEEG.  Yet the amantadine appears to be making a significant difference.  Even if the QEEG is frowned upon as somewhat suspicious, I guess we will just keep her on this new med.  All I know is that she is so much better.  I hope one day that we will be able to really pinpoint in sophisticated brain imaging exactly which meds will be the most beneficial.  Wouldn't that be nice and easy!  Everything regarding the treatment of  early onset bipolar disorder seems to be trial and error, lots of guesswork.  My bipolar adult friends go through the same cycle of trying different med combinations, having it work for a while, and then something changes and the meds stop working, and so something else is added or changed.  Not an easy life at all.
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