school starts soon!

[crazymama30]

I am concerned about getting difficult child in a good place emotionally, medication wise, to start school. New psychiatrist is great, we have been inching up his abilify to try to cool his temper, and it has been helping but with the first day of school only a few weeks away, I am nervous. She also changed his diagnosis from cyclothymia to mood disorder not otherwise specified. Not too much of a difference, but I found it interesting.

His temper is better, but he is still really explosive. On the way home from the camping trip the kids were in the back seat with a cooler inbetween them. We stopped at a rest stop,and difficult child could not unbuckle his seat as the cooler was in the way. easy child was sound asleep with her headphones on. Instead of removing her headphones, he shoved the cooler repeatedly into her. I was outside holding both dogs on a leash, ran over and opened easy child's door and did what I could to protect her, but when she woke up world war III erupted and they were both swinging at each other, and she was screaming like a banshee. Everyone at the rest stop was staring, and it was ugly. He continues to bame everyone else for everything, and everything is somebody's fault.....in his world there are no accidents.

His vyvanse dose has been the same for months, if he does not get it (I forget to give it) things are much much worse. He is on 250mg of Lamictal and 5mg of abilify in the evening and we are bumping him to 9mg of abilify in the morning today.

I hope something works soon. He does not have the frustration tolerance he needs for school.

difficult child continues in weekly therapy, this is helping too. After he sees his therapist he is so much better for that day. She has been great, thinks out of the box. He does not talk much so many times this summer they have been walking up to the hospital (where I work and not far at all) and he talks so much more while they are walking. They go and he gets a snack from the cafeteria. She has said that he is so much easier to work with this way. I am all for whatever works.

I sure hope the medication change starts helping more quickly. I don't want to send him to school the way he is now, it would not go well. Any thoughts or ideas?

 

[totoro]

We are kind of in the same boat. K started School last week and she is an absolute mess! YEAH... LOL

K is not sleeping and cycling pretty bad. Her tics are worse as is her stimming.
But we sent her any way... I don't know if it is good or bad. But we figured the School and new teacher gets to see K at her best. But of course she is holding it together in school so far and completely falling apart after school. LOL

I know you have been on the medication marry go round between husband and difficult child so what next? We are going through the same thing.
THe other problem is as they get older sometimes medications we have tried and didn't work will now work!

I am sorry the school issues is such a 50/50 call. Does he have good accommodations set up?

 

[lms1983]

I am dreading the start of school. Two weeks and we don't even have school clothes because DD2 doesn't "like" anything that comes in her size. Totally in denial about being "plus". Won't look at shoes, either. I just ordered some, supposedly for me, and I'm hoping she'll like them and wear them. i'm scared to death she will go to school in the tight clothes from last year. Then, of course, she doesn't wake up. We started melatonin during the end of last year and it seemed to work this summer. She woke up reasonably early, but not early enough to start school. Oh, man.

 

[crazymama30]

We have some modifications set up, and he goes to a very small school. There are 16 students in his 7th grade class, and there are 2 classes of 7th and 6th graders (6th grade is same size) and only one class of 8th graders. They did really well with difficult child last year, and the sped teacher is good to work with, she is kinda an airhead and I don't know how much she has experiences with difficult child's like mine, but she listens and responds and that means a lot. I really like how they handled the one major discipline incident difficult child had last year, they were not condescending at all, acknowled the other boy's part in it, told difficult child what he did right and what he could have done better, and had a meeting with difficult child, the other boy and his parents, myself and the director.

Yeah toto, don't you just love the medication merry go round? I think difficult child could be on the right medications, the doses just need to be dialed in. We may need to increase his vyvanse, who knows? I just hope the school year goes ok.

As for husband? He is now diagnosis'd with treatment resistant BiPolar (BP) I. We had to stop the tegretol as he was passing out in the heat, and psychiatrist put him on 300mg of lithium. I really do not expect to see anything at that dose, but he reacts so poorly to everything that psychiatrist wanted to start low and titrate up slow.

lms, my difficult child hates to try on clothes. I have to wait for the right time. I bought jeans and kept the receipt so I can return them. The shoes I bought the next size up, and they should fit I hope. I hate clothes shopping, especially with kids.