Increased…

Thursday night was rough. B came in from outside just furious, according to him, another child’s dad had yelled at him and threatened to “kick his a##”. He was insistent that we talk to his other friend who witnessed the whole thing. Donovan & I talked it over, what do we do? We know that B sometimes perceives things as more threatening than they are, and that when that happens, it’s real to him, nothing we do can change his mind about it, he’s completely inflexible about it. We thought about going over and talking to the parent, explaining what is going on, we just weren’t sure. There is such a stigma with this disorder, people hear “Bipolar” and think horrible things. It’s not very well understood by doctors yet, so it’s definitely not understood by most people who haven’t’ dealt with it. I don’t know if we’re ready to educate the neighborhood at this point though, we’re still learning! Donovan had to run to the store, and on his way, happened to see the other little boy outside playing. He asked him what had happened, and he said that the man had come out, told them to leave his daughter alone, and get off his property. He wasn’t yelling, didn’t swear or threaten anyone. Again a case of feeling threatened and locking onto that, needing that control over the situation. When Donovan got home everything was fine, B had calmed down and was playing w/ his brother. A little bit later though, everything exploded. B had yelled at D for something and D asked him to leave his room, at which point B totally lost it. He was furious, cussing, calling names, the whole nine yards. He was not being physical at least, and we were so thankful for that! From that point on though, he was being very defiant and angry. He didn’t want to shower, he didn’t want to go to bed. We told him that he needed to calm down, and take a break. He wasn’t being physical so we left him alone. The next thing you know, he’s in the shower. I went to tell him it was time to get out, and he had no towel. When I asked him about it, he fell apart crying that he was sorry and just stupid. I reassured him as best as I could, and he got out. Then he was ok for the most part.

Yesterday the psychiatrist had us increase B’s dosage on his new med to 2x a day. She received the blood work back, and his level was at a 0.3, therapeutic levels are around 1.0-1.2. So now he is getting 300mg of Lithium in the morning, and again in the evening. Hopefully this will get him where he needs to be and we’ll start seeing more stability and control. He started getting the increased dosage yesterday.

The kids went to their dad’s today. They were all excited about going and seeing him and their little brother. They are supposed to go to a place that’s kind of like Malibu Castle. Hopefully it won’t be too much for B to handle. He doesn’t usually have episodes at his dad’s, but I think the stress of holding it together there is rough on him, and we’ve usually got a rough day or two when he gets home. We shall see how it goes!

Still waiting…

Thank you everyone who is praying for us, it is working…

For those of you who don’t know all the details, we took B Monday night to a psychiatric treatment center. He started the night off good, but after his shower, he “fell” down the stairs, intentionally. On his way down, he knocked A out of the way, and fortunately she didn’t fall, just hit the wall and bruised her finger. After that, he became very aggressive, hitting, kicking, saying hateful things. At one point, he did calm down, and was saying that he did not like feeling that way, and did not want to really hurt us, but felt like someone else was making him do and say these things. We tried to get him upstairs to his room, but he became agitated again and had to be carried upstairs. He was very angry at that, and could not be calmed down at that point. We made the decision to call the hospital, they had a bed available, and recommended bringing him in based on the behaviors we were describing. He did not want to go. When Donovan left to take the other two children to a friend’s so we could take B to the hospital, he was adamant that he was not going. We, I say we it was actually Donovan, carried him out of his room, down the stairs, and to the car. B was not happy. He fought all the way, threatening us and himself, throwing things in the car. He finally calmed down, but when we got to the hospital, he got wound back up, and had to be carried in and restrained. They finally got him to calm down, thankfully without having to give him anything. He has been there since then. He will be in the hospital until early in the week at least. The psychiatrist has ordered psychological testing, which should be done today or tomorrow (we were hoping for sooner, but there were insurance problems). Right now I’m praying that we will get results before he is discharged. Thus far there have not been any medication changes, and the diagnosis is still Mood Disorder NOS and Anxiety Disorder NOS. We are praying that the psych testing will reveal a more specific diagnosis, which will give us a better idea of where to go with treatment. He has had one episode there at the hospital, which has not happened with any of his prior hospitalizations. This gives them a more clear picture of what his symptoms and behaviors are, and that will help to determine a better diagnosis and treatment plan. Again, right now, we are just in a holding pattern, trying to figure out which way to go with this, and what will help him the most.

D & A are doing OK with all this. They are worried about B of course. A is upset because being 9 years old, she cannot go onto the unit with B to visit him, and he cannot come outside yet. Yesterday she got to see him through the window and wave, blow kisses, and tell him she loves him in sign language. That made her feel better. We are trying to keep things as normal as possible for them, and thanks to all our wonderful friends for helping us to do that! I don’t know how we would be getting through this without you all!

Just keep praying, it is all in God’s hands, and He will get us through this and use it for good according to His will…

Thank you again for your prayers and well wishes.