Scrolling Vision Issue Solved?

Well, we tried a reduction in the Trileptal, which was at 1800 mgs since Meridell.  She is now on 1500 mgs, and guess what?  No episodes of scrolling vision!!  This has been true for the last four weeks.  So maybe the scrolling vision had nothing to do with the concussions!   If that is so, then so much of the issues she had in school last year might have been avoided, but we are still more satisfied with the online high school option.  And this makes the whole lacrosse/concussion issue look less concerning.  Not completely, but a little less.   Her moods haven't changed with the reduction either, thank goodness!  

College Lacrosse or No?

Such a big decision. Do we allow her to go on the recruiting circuit, with coaches contacting her from around the country, or do we put this dream to rest, as an impractical one.  Being bipolar is hard, very hard.  Life is ten times more challenging.  College will be very challenging.  Playing lacrosse plus college, maybe far too much.  As a junior, life moves very quickly through the end of high school.  She still has the SATs, the ACTS, college visits, applications, and so much more.   Yet her dream of playing college lacrosse has been what has kept her marching on despite everything.  I am not sure what would happen if that dream dies.  Praying for wisdom.

Huge Milestone: Five Years Without a Hospitalization!!

We have now gone five years without a single psychiatric hospitalization since her three and a half month stay at Meridell Achievement Center in Liberty Hill, TX, where she received intensive residential treatment.  There the doctors were able to find just the right medication mix, which she has been on since then with just a few tweaks here and there and the addition of Lamictal.  Very few bipolar teens have gone so long without a stay in acute care.   Prior to going to Meridell, she had many, many hospitalizations.  I just can't say enough about this place.  Please don't hesitate to look into long-term residential treatment at the right place if you can't achieve stability for your  child through what is available locally.  We travelled across the country to get her the best care we could find.   Sometimes you have to do things you never thought you would do.  But joy comes in the morning so to speak.  We don't regret sending her away and neither does she.  But don't just look for a place that focuses on behavioral therapy and downplays the role of medication.  If your child is truly bipolar or schizophrenic or seriously depressed, behavioral therapy alone can't fix this.  You will just be putting a band aid on a much bigger problem.  The behavioral aspect can't be truly addressed if they are not on the right medications.  We have had far, far fewer behavioral issues to deal with once Caroline was put on the right mix of meds.  Academic problems, yes, but now major behavioral problems.  There is hope!

Online High School

So far, with one week into the experiment with the online high school offered through our school district, the verdict is a good one.  Caroline loves it.  She is still having trouble with math, but that isn't anything new.  The good news is that she can go to the district offices (two blocks from our house) where the online high school teachers have office space and get help one-on-one whenever she needs it.  Couldn't get better than this!  Most of the classes have weekly assignment deadlines, so she can decide on a daily basis which subjects to do first.  She could finish everything by Friday if she wanted to so that she has the weekend sans homework.  I really, really hope this works.  She can still participate in lacrosse with the local high school too.  And she has daily discussions about the subject material with the other teens who are enrolled in the online school.  We are so grateful to be in a school district with this kind of option.  The program seems quite organized and well-run.  As the semester progresses, we will see if this turns out as we all hoped.

Summer is Almost Over, School is Looming

Everyone starts school next week.  We are still trying to work out the kinks with the Online High School.  Because they are not offering Spanish or Chemistry online, she will have to take these two classes at the high school.  This wasn't anticipated so we have to help Caroline accept that she won't be able to do everything online like she wanted to.  We have two meetings tomorrow to sort out the details.  Hopefully we can get the classes at the times she needs.

I am weary.  Summer has its unique challenges.  I think overall it has gone very well.  No big crises.  I am trying to find out about fall lacrosse opportunities.  Got to keep her in the loop socially and athletically.

 I am tired.  Why I thought i would get anything done over the summer is puzzling.   My house is a wreck, half-painted, boxes half-emptied, laundry backed up.  We did a lot of traveling this summer, and my kids did too (camps, etc.)   So, maybe the fall will be better than last fall as far as a little time to breathe.   I always hope for this, and it usually doesn't work out.   Oh well.  But I am counting down the years left til graduation, just two more!  I love her to death, but it would be nice to be done with high school!!

Her more recent thyroid test did come back low.  I am hoping to get her on some thyroid medication because she is one sleepy girl.  All day, kind of comatose.  She sleeps way too much.

Speaking of sleepy, I am heading to bed.  Goodnight!!

Sorry for the Lack of Posts

Not really any particular reason.  Summer busy-ness I guess.  All is ok.  I don't think I can ever say great, right?  We are just kind of bumping along.  Caroline is taking summer school Geometry which isn't going that well.  She loves her new teacher, but the class is only three weeks long for one semester of Geometry, and it is too fast for her.  She might be retaking it again in the fall.

I think we are 99.9% sure we are homeschooling next year, using the district's online high school.  She was so stressed out last year, and so were we.  Wasn't worth it.  And she had seriously the best IEP team in the country I would vouch.  But a big public high school wasn't the right fit, and the small self-contained special ed classroom would not have been the right fit either as the kids were pretty intellectually challenged.   She is entirely relieved.  I worry about her taking the SATs next year, but we will be enlisting a tutor beginning in August.

Medically she started running a little "high," which looks like obsessiveness for her, so she is taking a bit more lithium.  But she is also going to be going on thyroid medication as she is clinically low (probably caused by the lithium,) which accounts for the low energy and sleepiness she has experienced all year.

She has played some summer lacrosse, but not much at all compared to usual.  Her knee is nearly 100% better following surgery.  There is a fall league she might join up in Denver.  I know she is longing to really scrimmage.

I hope your summer is going ok.  Summer can be hard, or really good, it would seem.  Caroline often does best in the summer.  Maybe it is the lack of school stress, or the sunny days.  I too do better with lots of sun.  That is one of the reasons we jumped at the chance to move to Colorado.  Despite the cold, it is sunny most of the time.

Talk to you soon!

Not Going to Camp

Caroline took the news about her not going to the camp in Canada really well.  She was relieved actually.  Between the knee surgery and her need for sleep, she was worried that things would go wrong.  We have come up with an alternate plan, which involves the beach, which she is very happy about.  So even though we are losing some money, the peace of mind we have now is worth it.

This is the last week of school.  She is being exempted from her English and Biology final exams.  She has only a big history project to turn in, and a few English assignments and she is done.  I am feeling myself relaxing already.  Like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders now that school is almost done.  Still don't know what we are doing next year.  We need some time to think and pray about it.