she's going to try to eat on thursday

Jena

New Member
soo doctor's were pushing me to push difficult child on eating. so i worked on her over the weekend and past few days.

she's afraid no doubt. is highly anxious over it. yet they said they gotta get her moving along. she told them that she doesn't wanna eat for a long time yet. they said no that isnt' good.

so, anyway thursday morning, i'm sleeping here tmrw. night told her i would. she's having let's hope having scrambled eggs with cheese toast with-butter and orange juice because they dont' let her drink juice here.

keep fingers crossed. once she gets in enough food each day she can be discharged from hospital and begin day program. yea let me just say nothing like what they told me on the phone of how it would go. they said 3 days in hospital with tube, than out to day treatment and i do feedings at night.

i get she was in bad medical shape and just now making some improvements but the other junk ahhh kinda different lol. who cares at this point.

sooo keep your fingers crossed she doesn't flip the script and say she wont' eat. :)
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
They are go start off so ...I dont know how to call that diet...I guess a "regular" diet. I would think they would start her off on a soft diet or even a semi liquid diet.

Im trying to remember what I was started on. Its hazy. I think I got mashed potato's, pudding, ensure, soup, soft fruits, jello, things like that. My fluids had to be thickened for a while because of the danger of aspiration into my lungs which really irritated me. I hated the stuff they used to thicken the drinks. It was nasty.
 

pepperidge

New Member
Jen

Is there a medical reason that they are pushing her to start on solid food so quickly and so much? Or are they just looking for her to take a bite or two? Why not release her if she is medically stable and do nighttime feedings? Do you understand their reasoning? If they can get her to eat all that food then what do they need to do in day treatment? (It would seem like 3/4 of the battle is over at that point!) Do they really expect her to eat that on Thursday? Have they been working with her?

Not questioning anything, just trying to understand what their approach is.

In your shoes I would be a bit confused I think.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I am confused too. I can see why what they tell you on the phone and what they tell you when you get there are different. It is hard to know what is going on when the patient isn't there for you to examine and work with. I imagine keeping her in the day treatment is to help get the phobia to go away so that theydon't have her yo-yoing from eating a littel bit to not eating for weeks and back. They likely want to keep her in the psychiatric hospital for a bit so that they can get her to separate from you a bit easier. Otherwise they will ahve tantrums, etc... when she goes to day treatment and you are not there every minute. her dependence on you may be part of the reason they are keeping her in the hospital. Also the hard time sleeping, anxiety, talking about hating herself, watning to die, hitting herself, etc.... She may be more stable medically today and hopefully it will last but they may want to make sure and watch for a day or two with that. They also may feel they need to work on the other issues before day treatment will be enough to help her.

They probably don't want to just do jello, pudding, etc... because they may think it will feed into her fear she will choke. If they expect her to eat pudding she may think that they don't think she can swallow "regular" food, so they expect her to eat regular food to help give her the confidence to overcome this.

Have you ever described the anxiety as a monster, a "villain" who is "attacking" her but she can use her "superpowers" to fight it? I am thinking that she could make up her own stories, etc.... I think it is hexamaus who has a difficult child who named his anger and rage "fluffy" after the 3 headed dog in Harry Potter. He works to keep fluffy from taking over and it has changed a LOT and really reduced his gfgness in a HUGE way. I wonder if this could be something that difficult child could understand and use to help her fight her problems, esp the phobias right now.

do they plan to use any exposure therapy, etc... the way they do with other phobias and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) things? I tihnk it was a&e who had a show that had people going through some of this and it was very effective. So maybe this is something day treatment will do?

The cheese toast, etc... does seem like an odd choice to me. What do they have her drinking while she is there? Surely they haven't banned all liquids by mouth, have they? I can see if she was going through lots and lots of juice or whatever cutting back on it, esp with the feeding tube in, but why no juice at all? It is supposed to be a reward? Also, if she was not drinking when you got there, and is now drinking, why not go up to thicker things and then to solids?

Do they give straight answers when you ask these things? Did they ever explain why they told you 90% were done in 8 weeks or what they did with the other 10% who were not all better by then?
 

Jena

New Member
no i'm good. they wanna get her eating solids because that's the program. she cant' be admitted into reg. hospital like this indef. the cilnic day treatment is where the real work will be. here we are looking for bite chew swallow come thursday. see if she can do it. take a few bites, etc. than we'll c how it all goes from there. she wont' totally stabilize medically till solids hit they said. and she has said each day for 3 days straight she's starving so cutting liquids is working. she's taking in boost via the feeding tube.

at this point let's all just shake rattle and dance away that she does what i hope she does thursday and the real work can begin and i can get home to my dysfunctional easy child who needs work. :)
 

Jena

New Member
she wants to eat tmrw. flipped out a bit at the hospital tonight. smelled other people's food and that was it melted down called nurse in and said i want food tmrw i can't wait. so we're mtg doctor at 8:30 tmrw to discuss it and hopefully give it to her.

here's hoping. yea she ordered scrambled eggs with-cheese and toast with butter and juice. they laughed and said other kids in program just ordered cereal :)
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
Wow! That's really something. I'm sure everyone is excited and anxious. We;re all rootin' for her and your family. DDD
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Her wanting to eat is like heavenly music to these ears. The desire to do it will help her overcome the fear. I'm so proud of her! Give her a hug for me and tell her this lady y'all have never met is just thrilled she's doing so well! LOL
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
smelled other people's food and that was it melted down called nurse in and said i want food tmrw i can't wait.

Awesome!

woke up today petrified to eat.

Oh, no.

I wonder if the smell is enticing enough to erase some of the anxiety? I don't remember you talking about good smells b4 ...
 

Jena

New Member
hey took us a long time to get here going to take a long time to get outta it! they brought chloe the therapy dog up to her because they know she's struggling. i got some amazing pics i took my new camera.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I wonder if they could have the therapy dog there while trying to eat. Say..her take a bite...then the dog gets a biscuit. Give and take.
 
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