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, May 2, 2011

Mania in May

Well, it's official: Caroline is really, really manic.  She seemed fine a few days ago, but today was a blast from the past so to speak.  She was agitated, angry, anxious, explosive, told tall tales to the extreme, was completely unable to do school, and possessed a huge amount of physical energy, which she tried to expend through running, but it helped only temporarily.  I had to give her a Klonipin today which is something I haven't done in probably two years.  Tonight she was scaring us so badly with her wild stater that we gave her an extra 100 mg of Seroquel with her bedtime meds, which is used to quickly bring down mania.  We will call her doc first thing in the morning to get an appointment.  Might be time to up a mood stabilizer like the Trileptal or Lamictal or the Seroquel.  Ugh!  Just when things are going relatively well, bipolar disorder strikes again with a big mood swing!!  Her homeschool coop classes are tomorrow but I think we will not be sending her.  I am glad we kept her home from lacrosse practice.  The most embarrassing things have occurred while she has been manic historically so it is best to just keep her home and ride out the storm.  Sigh!!  I know you know what this is like.  We just hope this doesn't lead to a need for hospitalization, something we have avoided for two whole years, a real record! And my mom is coming into town this week from the West Coast and we haven't seen her in two years!  Always something...
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2 comments:

Anna said...

Megan,

It sounds like you are rolling with the punches. By all means keep her at home as long as you are safe. She is safer there than out in the world damaging her relationships. Please do not look at hospitalization as a personal failure. I never looked at my mom's many many hospitalizations for her heart as failures. They were life threatening episodes that needed to be managed in a hospital. There was no guild attached in her case and there should be none in yours.

Take care my friend. This too shall pass.

May 2, 2011 at 9:26 PM
Accidental Expert said...

I'm sorry you're going through this right now, but I'm so impressed with how well you know your daughter and how you know when to pull back on commitments and other things. This is something we have not yet mastered.

Take care.

May 3, 2011 at 12:00 AM

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