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, August 28, 2009

Too Many Appointments!

Now that Caroline is back, I am back to playing chauffeur to her many doctor/therapy appointments. I forgot how much I time I spent in the car with her prior to her RTC stay. Her back problem from the fall and spring has reappeared and after seeing the pediatrician yesterday, he said she needed to go to a chiropractor and a massage therapist to work out all of the knots in her back. Today she had an hour long massage ($75!) and the massage therapist said her back was the tightest one she had worked on in a long time, and that one of her vertebrae was sticking out weirdly. I could see what she meant. She wanted her to see a chiropractor ASAP and come back for more massage. Caroline really can't start running with this spasm thing going on, so we do have to pursue a solution.

My husband is mad that the pediatrician didn't give us a referral to the pain management group she was at before for physical therapy, because our insurance doesn't cover massage therapy or chiropractic. I got mad because I was just following directions. I think we are both stressed out at the end of a long week.

The family was supposed to go up to the annual Crab Feast tomorrow put on at Bill's aunt's house, which is about a two hour drive away. Caroline can't sit in the car that long because of her back, and that means I am staying here, which is probably best since the laundry is out of control again and the frig needs a major cleaning. I need "catch-up" time. My other kids will be mad at me for not going, but with school starting so soon, I feel like I need time to myself to prepare for the hard work to come.

Caroline has been much better without the dexedrine. She has been using her coping skills and has been very helpful and sweet. I think those first couple of days that made me so anxious were just a combination of the ADHD med and the shock of coming home. She has shown the person we saw at Meridell for the most part. She just came in and used an "I feel" statement about how she is feeling Bill and I griping at each other over several things this evening. No meltdown, just a simple explanation of why she was feeling what she was feeling. So refreshing.
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