Adventures in Medication

When I say adventures boy do I mean adventures and then some! You think back to all the testing that has been done over the course of 6-7 months. All the pre-therapy session you went through just to get a diagnosis that no one in the psychiatric community wants to give a child. Bi-Polar Disorder. Pediatric Bi-Polar Disorder. Now that they swallowed that bombshell; what medication options are you looking for? Who knows? I certainly had no clue. Can we stabilize his mood swings? Flash forward to what first prescribed. Abilify. New to the market. Doesn't cause weight gain and different from any prescription for bi-polar disorder. One problem no solid clinical trials on children. So we give it a go. Within a month we changed the dosage and wham!, a full on manic episode in school no less. Back to the drawing board. Next up Risperdal. The nightmare from hell. We would deal with this nightmare for close to 2 years. The main problem was the weight gain. The medication causes weight gain and causes in increased appetite. The weight did not increase slowly at all, it increased very rapidly. He was your average 6 year old boy with a who wore 7/8 boys. Trying to control a child's weight proved to be difficult. By the end of a 6 month period my son was now wearing a size 32 men's (his older brother's clothing). He would be self conscious about his weigh. All the while I am arguing with his meds therapist that he needs to be switched to a different medication. The medication is working they said. But at what cost I asked. The more we talked about it the longer he stayed on the medication. He wasn't happy with himself. Finally, I switched offices and started to see a new meds therapist and I brought up my concerns to her and thankfully she agreed with me and couldn't understand why he was being kept on the Risperdal. She also agreed with me that 1) the medication itself caused weight gain (without the increased appetite) and 2) the medication increased the appetite. They were two separate side affects. {{It would be years later that we would hear all the warnings about Risperdal, being linked to weight gain and Gynecomastia}} Finally a voice of reason. Next up would be Trileptal. Along with Clonidine (to help with sleep, which later would be replaced with Melatonin tablets) and Vyvanse (to help slow the mind down, though he is not being diagnosed with ADHD). This medication would be the protocol for several years. The Trileptal would see several increases to help with the mood swings. There would be "breaks" in medication. I kept his therapist informed as to when he was stopping and the duration of each break. We were testing the waters because ultimately the goal was for him not to be on medication. No one ever said, hey this is an unrealistic goal you have. Not once. We would work on everything that needed to worked on in the short time that I gave it. I wanted things completed before he got to high school. {{{Foot Note: The goal was complete 2 years a head of schedule. It took work but we did make it.}}}

Wandering Back.....

I honestly had good intentions on when I started this blog to share my thoughts on raising a child with Bi-Polar Disorder. I, however was caught up in the daily tasks of being his parent (not that my life is any less chaotic then any one else). Some days it just seemed that way. Being a single parent to two boys who are 8 years apart was no easy feat (being a parent isn't, I know) Then you add a couple of diagnosis of ADHD, Bi-Polar Disorder (with Mania), Anxiety, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Autism Broad Spectrum (between the both of them). Pepper in the 504 Plans and IEP Meetings, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Medication Therapy, and both of them needed braces. Normal everyday parenting. I know my struggles are no different from anyone else (laughs, it just feels that way). So why come back after I dropped the blog and my adventures in parenting are almost done? Not really sure, I feel that maybe I have something to share. Some insights to offer? I survived. I know it seems weird to say that. I survived. It was hard, it was trying at times and some days are easier than others. And now we have one out of the house and one high school student still trying to find his way in this crazy world. The roller coaster ride doesn't end; it just changes. I was talking with my son the other day about the things we all have been through. He doesn't remember. How odd? Boy to think back to all the stuff we went through before he was diagnosed to all the calls from his First Grade teacher. The grey clouds that rolled in for no apparent reason. He still has his little quirks but cannot recall why he has them. Everything he does is just second nature. Little does he know that his second nature is something I gave to him when he was little and we worked hard to get it. Thinking back was another reason to start blogging again. I want something to show him later. We have had to had the "birds & the bees" talk and he says "don't worry, I don't want kids so yeah, there's that". I didn't want to push the issue because after all he still has plenty of time to rethink the whole no kids thing. But I was curious as to why he doesn't want kids. He simply said "I don't want them to be like me". Wow, that completely blew me away. Sure it was tough, I said, but I would not trade you for anything in the world. He smiled. I told him that there is nothing wrong with him, we all go through tough times with our children and whatever comes your way, you have the tools to handle it. There are days where he is like me and when you have those "that's so me" moments, you can relate. You actually know how to handle those situations a lot better than flying blind. That is true with any parent, not just a parent of a special needs child. So in short and so I can stop rambling (in my head, getting lost in thought) I will have this blog here as some record of roller coaster ride we journeyed on together. It has been worth the ride......

Rant......

According to my son's father I am the worst mother alive.  Everything I do is wrong.  Yes over made a huge mistake of giving Caleb a trial period without his meds.  If you thought that I was causing such great harm to him,  why didn't you take him to see the doctor. Why didn't you over ride me? It would have been so simple to call the therapist, schedule an appointment, go to the pharmacy and then make sure he takes it every single morning.  That's what I had been doing every day since he was 5 (he is now 14) And prior to the meds I have spent several years with speech and occupational therapy plus school meetings,  therapist and home studies.  He hasn't been here every single day.  I have... Unless I am at work.  And prior to 2011 I worked extremely close to home.  My office used to be on the same property  as where I live.  I have never taken a vacation,  moved out, been in jail (for any period of time).  Now I am just rambling so I guess the rant is over.