Hi,
difficult child has been transitioning from Trileptal to Depakote ER since our psychiatrist visit two weeks ago. He has now finished Trileptal and is taking 500 mg of Depakote ER. We made this switch after several very good months on Trileptal because difficult child once again became hypomanic a few weeks ago. psychiatrist had difficult child take Klonopin for three days to bring him down (which worked) and started the transition from Trileptal to Depakote ER at that point.
We went from 250 mg of Depakote ER to 500 mg on Thursday. difficult child was up most of the night vomitting after the increase, so we kept him home from school on Friday. The Depakote hasn't made him nauseas since.
Fast forward to last night: difficult child woke up around midnight and has been up since then (It is now 10:30 a.m.). He has slept a total of 2 hours in the last 28 hours. He shows no signs of fatigue, but I kept him home from school because I'm sure he will crash at some point. He doesn't have the bright eyed hypomanic look he had a few weeks ago and he isn't talking non-stop, but--clearly--this isn't right.
He is manageable...Not violent, not even paticularly irritable. Just very AWAKE and GLEEFUL. Right now he is watching PBS Kids and picking at his feet (which he used to do to the point of bleeding, but had quit doing since he started imipramine). He is showing some exaggerated glee at minor things (DRAGON TALES!!! YAY! DRAGON TALES IS ON!!!).
Not sure what to do. husband is in one of his, "I dunno...He gets like this," stages. Have I mentioned that the D in husband is for DENIAL? Anyway, husband would freak out if I call the psychiatrist and come back with the recommendation to give him Klonopin again (Klonopin did bring difficult child down, but also made him a little disinhibited in other ways...and very lethargic). This morning I couldn't even get husband to talk to me about what to do. I always try to get husband on board before taking action, but--frankly--I'm getting tired of it.
I know that the Depakote hasn't had time to do its thing, so what do we do now?
difficult child has been transitioning from Trileptal to Depakote ER since our psychiatrist visit two weeks ago. He has now finished Trileptal and is taking 500 mg of Depakote ER. We made this switch after several very good months on Trileptal because difficult child once again became hypomanic a few weeks ago. psychiatrist had difficult child take Klonopin for three days to bring him down (which worked) and started the transition from Trileptal to Depakote ER at that point.
We went from 250 mg of Depakote ER to 500 mg on Thursday. difficult child was up most of the night vomitting after the increase, so we kept him home from school on Friday. The Depakote hasn't made him nauseas since.
Fast forward to last night: difficult child woke up around midnight and has been up since then (It is now 10:30 a.m.). He has slept a total of 2 hours in the last 28 hours. He shows no signs of fatigue, but I kept him home from school because I'm sure he will crash at some point. He doesn't have the bright eyed hypomanic look he had a few weeks ago and he isn't talking non-stop, but--clearly--this isn't right.
He is manageable...Not violent, not even paticularly irritable. Just very AWAKE and GLEEFUL. Right now he is watching PBS Kids and picking at his feet (which he used to do to the point of bleeding, but had quit doing since he started imipramine). He is showing some exaggerated glee at minor things (DRAGON TALES!!! YAY! DRAGON TALES IS ON!!!).
Not sure what to do. husband is in one of his, "I dunno...He gets like this," stages. Have I mentioned that the D in husband is for DENIAL? Anyway, husband would freak out if I call the psychiatrist and come back with the recommendation to give him Klonopin again (Klonopin did bring difficult child down, but also made him a little disinhibited in other ways...and very lethargic). This morning I couldn't even get husband to talk to me about what to do. I always try to get husband on board before taking action, but--frankly--I'm getting tired of it.
I know that the Depakote hasn't had time to do its thing, so what do we do now?