Guess who

[klmno]

got himself up this morning ON HIS OWN, on time, took medications on his own (in front of me), and left 10 mins EARLY to catch the bus (1st time this year I haven't driven him), ????

I'm super happy about this but I will be watching to see if there are 20 phone calls this evening between difficult child and the boy I'm so concerned about. I can't help but wonder if it's just coincidence that their contact slows and stops when difficult child isn't going to school.

I've already emailed the principal and case manager to give them a heads up.

 

[compassion]

Great news!!! Compassion

 

[bran155]

Good for him!!! I hope the rest of your day is as good as your morning.

 

[Jena]

wow, that's great. good for him. I hope today continues to be a good day for you and difficult child!!!

 

[maril]

Good news. Isn't it just great to have a day like that?

You are very smart, too, to go ahead with the heads up. You just never know. I am learning that from what I have experienced with my difficult child.

 

[butterflydreams]

This is so great! That must make you feel really good. I can't imagine a morning going so well.

Christy

 

[Ropefree]

Klmno: Thats not your house. You are dreaming.

 

[gcvmom]

Who was THAT and where did YOUR difficult child go?!

Whatever you're feeding him, you gotta give me the recipe. I need summa dat here!

 

[klmno]

Thanks all! gvcmom- that is exactly how I'm thinking! I'm home early from work to do this LONG phone interview about the study- to see if he qualifies. It starts in about 5-10 mins- wish me luck!!

 

[gcvmom]

Let us know how it goes! I hope he qualifies!!

 

[klmno]

I just off got the phone- I don't know yet how this will go. This was a psychiatric and I have a feeling we passed this "screening" but now she has to take it to others there to see if difficult child goes to the next step. She said I would hear from her around Jan 7 or a little before about that. If he's still in the running, they will contact difficult child's therapist and psychiatrist. If they think he meets criteria so far, they will have us come up for a longer, one on one interview (actually, someone will interview him and someone else will interview me). We could tour the facility while we're there. Since I'm interested in the inpatient (2-3 mos worth) instead of out-patient, difficult child would have to agree.

Then, if he meets criteria after those interviews, they would tell us at the end of that day and we would discuss scheduling a time for him to go in. So, we're looking at around early-mid Feb. difficult child's normal period of erratic behavior is late winter/early spring. Although, I tend to think he's hitting "erratic" right now. I swear, I wonder if these medications are helping at all or making things worse sometimes.

The bad news- difficult child knew I had this phone interview today and I told him I would be on phone when he got home from school. He came home, looked at me, acted like he was going to the bathroom, and snuck out back door and left on his bike. Do you think there's any chance he has been avoiding school to try to stay away from this boy, then once he sees him at school he just gives in? This is exactly what happened when he went to school last Friday. Then, difficult child didn't go to school Mon or Tues and he stayed home or with me both days and there were no phone calls to or from that boy.

 

[gcvmom]

Could be... I don't think I'd take that as bad news, though. I'd be encouraged by the thought that my difficult child was actually TRYING to avoid trouble, even if it meant avoiding school because that kid is there.

I hope you're able to get him into the program, and most of all, I hope he is cooperative. This is a hard time of year for difficult child's. The crummy weather makes mine depressed and sluggish, and then when spring hits he's bouncing off the walls again and hypomanic. We've seen this pattern two years in a row so far, so I can't believe it's just coincidence.

I think with the medication question you have to remember what he's like off of everything. In our case off medications, difficult child 2 is out. of. control. That's my litmus test.

 

[klmno]

Yep- I don't know about the medications and that's one thing I like about the study- actually, I gues it depends on which study he got in to. But one of them starts with taking him off all medications. (They don't leave them off forever, unless by some miracle they determine that the difficult child doesn't really need them.) But, I guess they wean them off slowly, watch them for some time, then gradually put them back on traditional medications. I would LOVE for others to see what I see during that time period- or at least find out if he's not going thru that stage if he's in a different environment. But, I really do wish if he's doing well without medications that they'd try a few doses of allergy medications and see how he does for them.

 

[gcvmom]

You should mention the allergy medication issue if and when he gets accepted. Perhaps they can also trial them to see how he reacts.

 

[klmno]

difficult child still isn't home and I was hoping to get bills to the post office before they closed.

And, I got an email from principal that she found out that the IEP team could refer difficult child to the county team. URGHHHH! The question wasn't "could" they- the issue was if they don't HAVE to then please go ahead and refer it- I'm in an urgent situation. An iep team can't meet before January. I emailed back and tried to explain (ok- beg) and let her know that I will probably have to go ahead and do something- I just can't wait until then and ultimately have all this put off for another month. There are more problems here then getting difficult child to school and if the iep team could address them all, I wouldn't be asking for the county team.

I feel like I live on a roller-coaster. And I sit here KNOWING with everything in me that this is leading to difficult child getting arrested again (most likely) or possibly another psychiatric hospital stay. At least I can prove to the judge that difficult child clearly needed interventions to PREVENT more problems and I TRIED to get them.

Was the safety net ever really meant to do anything more than to be something on paper to give people a sense of security or justify more tax dollars being spent on people's salaries? People who apparently are always "helping others"?