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 13, 2010

ERs, XRs, Almost Always Have Better Results

Just a note that we have found that the XR and ER versions of psychiatric drugs do seem to make a difference in the length of time our child stays "stable" throughout the day. If your doc hasn't changed your child's meds over to the long-acting version, you may want to ask.
Posted by at

3 comments:

SarahinSC said...

My son was prescribed Depakote ER, but can't swallow a pill to save his life so he has to have the sprinkles. As soon as he's able to swallow pills we will switch him over.

August 13, 2010 at 6:37 PM
Lycka said...

While I have found Lithium ER to be more effective than regular form of the mood stabilizer for me, I feel the need to say that with other XR drugs that was not the case. When I was in the hospital, they gave me Serequel XR, instead of the normal release which I had been taken that was working for its intended use, psychosis; but they wanted to change and up for mood purposes. To make this short, the drug made me drowsy (which normal Serequel barely had), hungry (once again, other had not), my psychosis came back a little, and my mood did not improve until they upped the dosage of my Lithium. When I got back home, I switched back to regular release and my psychosis ran away with its tail between its legs. I could stay awake, too.

I'm not the only one with that reaction to Serequel XR. In fact, others have been more extreme. Such as Celia's daughter Liza' experience with it (http://licoriceroot.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/warning-do-not-try-a-new-medication-on-a-week-day/, http://licoriceroot.wordpress.com/2010/05/page/2/, http://licoriceroot.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/seroquel-versus-seroquel-xr-mommy-the-medical-detective/). I know that a lot of the medicines work better as XR, it should be noted that is not always true.

With Love;
Erika

August 14, 2010 at 1:13 AM
Megan said...

Thank you Erika for sharing your experience with Seroquel XR. I know that not everyone responds the same way to every drug, which is why I put "almost" always instead of always, because everyone's body chemistry is different, and what works for one person may not work at all for another. Geodon was horrible for Caroline, as was Depakote. I am glad you chimed in!

August 14, 2010 at 9:55 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)