Spring Break/Vacation

We have been on vacation for a few days.  It is hard to maintain a normal schedule when you are on vacation.  You are trying to see new and interesting sights and schedule all of it into a few days. 
Normal routines are very important to maintain stability in the life of a Bi-Polar child and a ADHD child, but very often normal routines end up getting thrown out the window due to the pace of fitting everything in.

 My bp child also has OCD which only complicates things a little more.  I have found that it helps to plan an activity every other day and to leave room for adjustments to be made if the need occurs.  It is important for  parents to be flexible and understand that the vacation will run smoother when you are open  to adjust activities if the children become too anxious or overwhelmed. 

It is equally important to let the children have a part in what you will see and the planning of when the sights will be seen.  Having a flexible but planned activities helps the children to transition easily and to know what to expect next.  We review the schedule the night before and plan what we will wear, what time we need to get up, when we will be leaving etc.

Always remember it is not how much you can fit in, but the quality that you experience it in.  You should be able to  accept that things don't always go as planned, and that is okay.  The most important thing is that you are getting the opportunity to be together as a family and get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

 Our vacation has went fairly well due to the fact that although we are very busy trying to fit everything in we are still taking time to relax, rest, and enjoy the time away.   We are having a great time and having fun.

Home Schooling

I am now Home schooling John through Treca digital Academy. It is not the path that I wanted to take, but I knew eventually that  it was the road we would be on. 

Treca has a wonderful program which allows John to work at his own pace.  Treca works within a 12 block system in each subject, you can not move ahead until one block is completed.  John is completing one block  a week, this is not normal speed for students.  He will probably be moving into 5th grade by next month, I feel that Treca is a good choice for him for they will continue to challenge him.  The Public School was not able to challenge him academically and this sometimes caused him to become bored and frustrated.

I made the choice to home school him because the  public school system was not able to accommodate John's special needs, they did not feel he qualified because he has high academic scores.  The school system did not want to label him as having a emotional disability.

It is always very complicated when your child does not fit into the "normal" standards that most children do.  I often feel that our society expects all children to fit into a square hole and when your child does not fit into this standard they are not able to accommodate you.   I believe that our society feels that we should all fit into a uniformity and when we don't there is a concern.

Along with home schooling you still have to maintain your child having social functions for they can learn how to interact appropriately with others.  John is involved in boy scouts and through Treca he will be going on field trips. 

I have also found out through a variety of concerts of different types of music that Jazz seems to calm his rages.  Music can very often soothe are souls.  John is still on the same medications, but at times they make him very tired.

We will keep trying

It is very hard to write this entry for I am very discouraged.  John is again having to try yet another medication.   I had so much hope that we would not have to go through the adjusting and re-adjusting to another medication, but so much for that.

John is currently taking the following vitamin supplements:
2400 mg. of fish oil
375 mg. of choline
1000 mg. of B12
1000 mg. of vitamin D3
100 mg. of magnesium
Daily multi- vitamin

Unfortunately vitamin supplements was not enough to maintain John's mood stability and temperament.
John was suspended from school for 5 days last week.  A group of children in his class was calling him names, and John was not able to slow down his thought process to the point of him getting help.  He became very angry and tried to stop the children from calling him names, he then totally lost it.   John had to be removed from the class and picked up from school.   The doctor advised me to try vyvanse 30 mg.  the next day and then .5 of resperdol with the vyvanse the following day.

The first day of vyvanse he could not sit still or stop talking, and he had extreme dry mouth.  John did not go to sleep until 3 am in the morning.  Today (day 2) is better he does not have the dry mouth.  The uncontrolled talking has stopped.  I feel the resperdol helped him to calm his need to constantly stay moving some part of his body.

It is not easy to be a Bi polar child and equally it is not easy to be the parent either.  It is very hard to just watch your child have these concerns and not to know how to help them.  I feel mothers of Bi polar children  are very strong, caring, understanding, and have a over flowing amount of unconditional love.  We will keep trying, trying, and trying.
We have God in our corner and will not give up.

Enough is Enough!

I feel sometimes that doctors are too fast to place your child on yet another medication.  It is very hard to find the right mix that works for your child, for every child reacts differently to medication.

The other factor is the sinking feeling of is the medication prescribed really helping my child?  I have found myself in this boat unfortunately or fortunately, I'm not sure which at this point.

My bp sons medication is not working again, he is still having aggression issues and severe temper tantrums.  His aggression seems to be on the rise since the doctor eliminated the amantadine from his mixtures of meds.  Yesterday the doctor prescribed abilify to replace resperdol, the thought of the side effects of this medication is just too scary for me to administer it to my child.  John does not have suicidal thoughts and I am not going to administer a med to my child that may or may not cause these side effects.

I guess the red flag to this was when the pharmacist asked why is your doctor prescribing this medication for your son; he is not old enough to take this?  The pharmacist thought I should reconsider the use of this medication.

So last night I decided to take the holistic approach and starting treating my son with natural remedies, of course I am doing this with a physician's directions.
The doctor eliminated the clonidine and the resperdol for John's medication.  John is now taking the amantadine to help control the rages he is taking a 1/2 tsp. in the morning and at night.  John started 1200 mg. of fish oil today and will take it daily, the doctor feels his system may have a deficiency of omega 3.   We are increasing his daily vitamin of B 12 and B6 he will be taking this with his normal daily vitamins.

Sometimes are body does not have enough of vitamins or omega 3 in our diet and when this occurs it can cause the body to have unstable results such as symptoms of bipolar disease, adhd, or many other concerns.

I will be keeping a journal of how the changes effects him, I feel this is a more healthy approach for John since the medications are not helping him.  We may need to add St. John's Wort to the holistic medicine, but we will do this slowly for we can monitor the changes of the vitamins added.

I will keep you posted as we journey down this road.  I hope the journey is the right one.

Here We Go Again

My bp child has had medication changes as I previously posted.  He is currently on risperdal which he takes .5 in the morning and .5 in the early evening.  He is also taking clonidine to help him sleep at night.  He was previously on amantadine, intuniv, and a lower dosage risperdal. 

I am seeing the effects of the medication change now, he is very jumpy and the mania and giddiness have returned.  He is having a hard time controlling his anger.  He is not able to control his anger or the  constant quick changes in his temperament.  John has been experiencing frustration when he can not control his actions.

John's psychologist suggested that  I should have a multi-faucet evaluation done, he wants the school to establish an IEP and a 504 plan.  These tools can help John by  accommodating his special needs and develop a plan to help him to succeed in school.

The psychologist has suggested that we might have to again add another med.  It seems that the warning sign to a medication change is when they start to grow or have to adjust too many changes in their day.  John has always had trouble with transitioning to different classes.  I am concerned about if he will be able to handle junior high and high school.   I feel that in the future that he will have to be home schooled.

Sometimes you can almost hear the changes coming it is , "The calm before the storm".

Every Which Way: Changes and Adjustments

Every Which Way: Changes and Adjustments: "It seems as if I am always making changes and adjustments in my life. Usually the adjustments that are made are due to the changes that hav..."

Changes and Adjustments

It seems as if I am always making changes and adjustments in my life.  Usually the adjustments that are made are due to the changes that have occurred within my children lives. 
My Bi polar child John is experiencing a great deal of changes currently in his life.  I decided to have him re-evaluated; it never hurts to make sure everything is as it should be.  I was not currently happy with his doctor or therapist.

The re-evaluation was eye opening.  John is still diagnosed with early onset Bi polar.  The psychologist felt that John was on the wrong medication.  He was taking 3/4 tsp. of Amantadine in the morning, Intuniv at 5pm, and then .5 of Risperdal at night.  John was experiencing fatigue during school and very often fell asleep in class.

The new psychologist changed all his meds taking off the Amantadine, the Intuniv, and increasing the Risperdal .25 in morning, .5 at night.  The thought of changing his meds was terrifying to me for I did not want to return to the school calling each day to pick him up.  I just sat in the waiting room while he was talking to John almost in tears.

We did try the which though, you always have to hope for an improvement for your child and that was the reason I witched doctors to begin with.  The change in the meds did work I  have seen a very tired child go to be energetic which is a good change.  John's mood seems to be more stable too.  He has not had an aggressive mood swing that is full blown, they appear to be more manageable.

John has been on the Risperdal increase for approximately three weeks.  The doctor did add Clonidine to the mix last week which is helping as well.  The doctor ordered a blood test to check John's blood sugar.  Diabetes runs in our family and Risperdal in some cases can increase a child's blood sugar. 

The results of the blood test was that John is pre-diabetic. 
We are currently changing his diet and hopefully we can maintain his blood sugar at normal level.  The whole household decided that we all would change are diet for John does feel deprived or tempted to eat items that might raise his sugar.   I'm sure it won't hurt any of us to eat more healthy food anyway!

I hope the changes that occur in John's life continue to be positive.  I am concerned about the thought of him also becoming diabetic.  John has managed to inherit everything from my ancestors and his dad's ancestors.  I guess it is just something else we have to add to the list.  I am also  very thankful to God that he has helped us receive diagnoses early on before conditions become life threatening.