smilingthroughmadness
New Member
I am brand new to this website and found it while trying to find resources in regards to my daughter. I'll try not to be long winded but I am just having one of those days and am completely overwhelmed right now!
difficult child 1 has recently been diagnosed bipolar. We are still in the early stages of figuring things out. She has been in weekly therapy with her new therapist for a few months now. She has been in and out of therapy since she was about 5 and every one of them told me it was just a phase, or it was normal. She was also previously diagnosed with parent child conduct disorder, except that she doesn't detach from my hip a lot of the time and has severe seperation anxiety when I leave. The counselor and pediatrician have been working together for a couple months now too. She's had an MRI (because she claims to see flying blue hippo's around the house), she's had a sleep study because she gets very little sleep for a couple weeks, but then sleeps half the day gets severe dizzy spells, migraines, and stomach aches and I can't get her out of bed. There is no sleeping disorder (per se). She has also been through blood tests to make sure all body levels of everything were normal, thyroid test, etc. She is seen weekly at the therapist and we are working on getting her to recognize her moods and feelings so that she can learn to better manage them. We have not told her the diagnosis yet and are working to figure out how to approach it. We are not to the point of medication yet as we are all kind of in limbo awaiting a neuropsychologist test.
I pulled her out of school after the 1st quarter because she was failing. (This was her 2nd round in 4th grade as the school recommended holding her back last year). I have requested an IEP and the school did their testing and it all came back "normal". She tests above her grade level for academics (had I known this last year, I wouldn't have held her back either). And her behavioral testing was "normal" as well so the school came back and told me that because her testing was fine, it must be something at home that was causing her failing grades and that failing grades were not a reason to move her to Special Education classes. So I pulled her out and I am currently homeschooling her. The diagnosis of bipolar is a relief and sooo hard all at the same time. I have been filling out a mood tracker for a couple months and I have a better idea of what to expect from her. My problem is trying to mainstream her back into the public school.
I'm trying to find out that with her being diagnosed bipolar, does the school system now HAVE to do an IEP for her? I really would like her to be back in school for next year, but I don't have a lot of options. We live in small town Wisconsin, with only 1 elementary school, 1 middle school and 1 high school.
I'm also wondering if anyone has any resources for finding where/who will do a neuro psychiatric evaluation because we are currently on state help for medical insurance and I am not finding anyone who will accept the insurance and do the test (my husband was laid off in January and so we lost his insurance and he just recently found work and will not be eligible for insurance for 6 months and I don't want to wait that long if I don't have to). I am willing to drive to a big city for the testing, I just need to find someone to do it.
Any help or resources would be greatly appreciated!!!! I've been all over the internet and it's so overwhelming trying to find anything specific.
Thank you so much!!!
smilingthroughmadness
difficult child 1 has recently been diagnosed bipolar. We are still in the early stages of figuring things out. She has been in weekly therapy with her new therapist for a few months now. She has been in and out of therapy since she was about 5 and every one of them told me it was just a phase, or it was normal. She was also previously diagnosed with parent child conduct disorder, except that she doesn't detach from my hip a lot of the time and has severe seperation anxiety when I leave. The counselor and pediatrician have been working together for a couple months now too. She's had an MRI (because she claims to see flying blue hippo's around the house), she's had a sleep study because she gets very little sleep for a couple weeks, but then sleeps half the day gets severe dizzy spells, migraines, and stomach aches and I can't get her out of bed. There is no sleeping disorder (per se). She has also been through blood tests to make sure all body levels of everything were normal, thyroid test, etc. She is seen weekly at the therapist and we are working on getting her to recognize her moods and feelings so that she can learn to better manage them. We have not told her the diagnosis yet and are working to figure out how to approach it. We are not to the point of medication yet as we are all kind of in limbo awaiting a neuropsychologist test.
I pulled her out of school after the 1st quarter because she was failing. (This was her 2nd round in 4th grade as the school recommended holding her back last year). I have requested an IEP and the school did their testing and it all came back "normal". She tests above her grade level for academics (had I known this last year, I wouldn't have held her back either). And her behavioral testing was "normal" as well so the school came back and told me that because her testing was fine, it must be something at home that was causing her failing grades and that failing grades were not a reason to move her to Special Education classes. So I pulled her out and I am currently homeschooling her. The diagnosis of bipolar is a relief and sooo hard all at the same time. I have been filling out a mood tracker for a couple months and I have a better idea of what to expect from her. My problem is trying to mainstream her back into the public school.
I'm trying to find out that with her being diagnosed bipolar, does the school system now HAVE to do an IEP for her? I really would like her to be back in school for next year, but I don't have a lot of options. We live in small town Wisconsin, with only 1 elementary school, 1 middle school and 1 high school.
I'm also wondering if anyone has any resources for finding where/who will do a neuro psychiatric evaluation because we are currently on state help for medical insurance and I am not finding anyone who will accept the insurance and do the test (my husband was laid off in January and so we lost his insurance and he just recently found work and will not be eligible for insurance for 6 months and I don't want to wait that long if I don't have to). I am willing to drive to a big city for the testing, I just need to find someone to do it.
Any help or resources would be greatly appreciated!!!! I've been all over the internet and it's so overwhelming trying to find anything specific.
Thank you so much!!!
smilingthroughmadness