Hardly know where to start. psychiatrist apparently finally saw the whole big picture today!

History: Abusive Biodad and difficult child 1. difficult child 2 was diagnosis'ed BiPolar (BP) at age 9 (not 'official on paper'but treatment for it anyway) due to behaviors and mood swings, also put on IEP for emotional lability and dysgraphia. Put on seroquel while biodad was out of the house for a few months. Then we moved from colorado to illinois with biodad, stopped medication because we lost insurance.

2009 domestic violence by biodad got him sent to jail and permanently out of the home, hasnt seen the kids since. Doesnt call or try anymore, or pay child support generally.

difficult child 1 took his place as the house bully. he used to be agressive with difficult child almost exclusively...they're so much alike that they cant stand eachother :rolleyes: Now he's just verbally agressive, calls names and insults and such, but no more physical stuff. Progress i suppose.
Interesting thing is that when difficult child 1 went to the psychiatric hospital (twice now) difficult child 2 stepped into his place. He was the bully towards difficult child 3. I used to think that it was mostly difficult child 1 causing problems, but it became obvious that difficult child 2 wasnt only the victim. I got to see all the things difficult child 1 complained about that i dismissed as excuses.

difficult child 2 got very manic not long after difficult child 1 spent a week in the psychiatric ward. Hit teachers, threw his desk, got suspended because he had to be removed by the school officer from ISS. Then came home and started ranting and pacing and beating on difficult child 3. So he went inpatient for a week. Had 1 issue of defiance there where he ended up in seclusion, doctor wasnt impressed. diagnosis'ed ODD, put on Abilify 5mg and released him. A month later with very little improvement in mood or behavior, raised to 10mg and added zoloft for anxiety and trazadone so he'd sleep through the night.

Still no real improvement in behavior. He's now bigger than i am. When he's asked to do anything is when his aggression hits, and about 2 weeks ago he actually pushed me around enough to sprain my ankle and wrist and kicked me hard enough to leave a bruise that's still there. The 3rd time i've had to call the cops on just him. (twice on difficult child 1) He ended back in a different psychiatric ward by st louis since the ones here were all full. Unfortunately he came down sick the very next day and spent 5 days confined to his room, didnt participate in any groups or schooling or interaction with other kids, then the day he got better was saturday and he behaved pretty well. So they sent him home. Total snow job:slap:. The psychiatric there put him on Geodon and discontinued all his other medications. Momma was NOT happy.

So, he comes home and he's back to how he was Before medications, totally aggressive and unstable. Attitude is Still 'there's nothing wrong with my behavior, everyone else just needs to change, get used to my behavior. Just accept that i'm going to be this way and steal and lie and be aggressive and do whatever i want and dont make me do anything i dont want to'

According to the psychiatrist, Illinois medicaid doesnt pay for residential or alot of the medications. They also dont have in home support here more than therapy once a week for an hour. As far as he can tell, difficult child 2 is very unstable and has skewed thinking, however he'd have to be totally psychotic to get medicaid to cover residential, and that takes about 6 months. He does feel the kid is a danger to me and others in the household, since he shows no remorse whatsoever for anything. He says it's now an emergency, we have to fix this kid before he hits the height of puberty. He shows all the traits of antisocial personality disorder.

He started him on depakote 500mg and back on his trazadone 50mg (YAY!)
But he's not sure what else to do and neither am I. Medicaid won't cover a neuropsychologist evaluation or multidisciplinary evaluation. The therapist is going to have a psychological evaluation done.

Thoughts anyone? Advice?
 

JJJ

Active Member
My children are on Medicaid in Illinois and many medications are covered. What medications does the doctor want to try that he feels won't be covered? The only thing we have problems getting covered are Vyvanse (eventually covered but needed to jump through hoops) and the XR or ER versions of drugs (just have to take the regular drug twice a day).

While they won't cover a "neuropsychologist" they will cover alot. If you send me a PM, I can give you the list of tests that Medicaid has covered for my kids.

Sometimes the psychiatrists don't really know what is covered.
 
ok will do JJJ :) thanks

Not sure on the medications, we've been through seroquel, abilify and Geodon, now on to Depakote, not sure what else he wanted to try, he just said some arent covered here.
 

JJJ

Active Member
medications we have had covered

AP: Geodon, Abilify, Risperdal, Seroquel, (Zyprexa-but no longer covered)
AD: Paxil, Prozac, Trazadone, Lexapro, Zoloft
Benz: Buspar, Ativan
MS: Depakote/Depakene, Lamictal, Trileptal, Thorazine
Stims: Ritalin, Concerta, Adderall XR, Focalin XR, Metadate CD, (Vyvanse--requires 3 failed stims incl Adderall & prior auth)
Others: Strattera, Clonodine, Amantadine, Cogentin

I'm sure there were more but those are the ones I can remember...lol.
 
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