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!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Spoke Too Soon

Unfortunately, mania has reared its crazy head again, and Caroline is manifesting the usual signs: sleeplessness, hyper-focused activity, hyper-sexuality, and non-stop chatter. We kept her home from school yesterday, and last night she said she again couldn't stay asleep. So I guess she will either go late or not at all. We have had very bad experiences with her going to school while manic. She loses all good judgement. Time to call the psychiatrist and ask what is next. I hope we didn't accidentally leave something out of the twenty four pills she takes each day. We do try to count them before handing them to her. I hate this stupid disorder.
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3 comments:

marythemom said...

Why they suddenly show symptoms when they've been going along just fine always makes me crazy! Sometimes we find out that they dropped (or palmed) a med, that a med just isn't working anymore (some meds stop working after a couple of years or the child has grown), or that this particularly manic was just so high that it overwhelmed the med, or there was some other trigger we did or didn't know about (test at school, or for my kids something that triggered their trauma)...

I hope you find an answer quickly.

Hugs and prayers,

Mary in TX

February 17, 2010 at 10:31 AM
Hartley said...

My thoughts are with you and your family as you figure out what is causing this. I am overwhelmed with the 3 meds a day, I can't imagine how hard it is to manage more.

Keep us posted,
Hartley

February 17, 2010 at 11:50 AM
domandkat said...

I continue to pray for you guys! Thank you for continuing to fill us in on how we can pray for you all.

February 17, 2010 at 1:54 PM

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