psychiatrist today, progress...kind of

[maxeygirls]

I've been hiding with my girls, we've all been severely under the weather
Ok so Saturday difficult child, easy child and I went to the park with an old high school friend and their easy child, went fantastic. difficult child only ran once! Since I had a friend there I was able to leave easy child in the stroller and sprint after her.
Today we had a psychiatrist appointment. In the hour and a half wait difficult child had a meltdown. Since our psychiatrist is at the offices of a children's hospital there were all kinds of parents in the waiting room, I got all sorts of interesting looks while fighting to restrain difficult child with easy child in her Moby Wrap. It was our first major meltdown in a month, so I wasn't prepared at all.
We increased risperdal again because of sleep and the off the wall comments difficult child makes then doesn't remember. Not increasing Depakote and psychiatrist admitted to not liking the stuff but not knowing what else to use.
Also continuing with melatonin. All in all, when I sit down with psychiatrist I remember just how far we've come and although Im still exhausted and the house is a mess, I feel a little better.

 

[smallworld]

With all due respect to your psychiatrist, why is he using a medication he doesn't like?

There are other mood stabilizers that can be used -- Lamictal, Trileptal, Lithium, to name a few. My own kids didn't do all that well on Depakote, which is why we ended up switching to Lamictal.

Has there been any thought to taking your difficult child for a second opinion?

 

[maxeygirls]

smallworld, it's her age. difficult child is 3.5 years old and psychiatrist and the rest of the hospital are concerned because of the lack of information on other medications for her age.

 

[maxeygirls]

I just filled my parents in on how the appointment went. They have been making great progress with accepting difficult child's diagnosis and not blaming me but my Dad just backtracked. "It's all because she never sees other children, you need to enroll her in daycare, she'll thrive there" he says. Right, lets put a difficult child with bipolar disorder, violent tendencies and the ability to become overwhelmed within minutes of being in a stressful environment into daycare. Anyone have advice on how to deal with this before I call back and apologize for hanging up on him?

 

[smallworld]

There is information on the effect of some other medications for children her age. As you may know, many of the medications used to treat BiPolar (BP) are the anticonvulsants used to treat epilepsy. For example, Lamictal is approved for the treatment of epilepsy in children ages two and older. Trileptal is approved for the treatment of epilepsy is children ages four and older. It is true that the effectiveness of Lithium has not been established in children under age 12 (although some psychiatrists do prescribe Lithium in children under age 12).

 

[SRL]

When it comes to family members, often the best is not to hand out so much information. As much as we would like them to understand, the reality is that most of them won't. They don't need to know about every appointment, every medication change, every tantrum, etc. Usually time and witnessing the kids will do more than any verbal convincing you can do. Next time dad or anyone else makes a comment like that I'd make a brief matter-of-fact comment and change the subject. I know it's hard because you really want the people in your life and your child's life to truly grasp what's going on but I promise you that you will need the skill of detaching from other's opinions over and over again.

If your doctor is frequently late, I'd call the office before leaving home to ask if they're running behind.

 

[maxeygirls]

SRL, I've been having a problem with my parents since day one. When husband comes home we will most likely be moving so that will fix part of it. Actually when I say day one, I mean day one with me and not with difficult child. I ran away a month after turning 18. I had to do it the same way a 12 year old might too, hiding my suitcase, sneaking out at 1am and even when I went 4 states away they found me. Can we say attachment issues on the parents side? Since difficult child was born it seems they have transferred all of that to her. What a heavy burden for a 3 year old! easy child somehow comes out of this unscathed, go figure.