Sickntired
New Member
Well, we thought we had found the magic bullet, and we had, but as always, luck was not on our side on this one.
My difficult child began taking Invega after trying multiple, multiple, multiple medications. This was a miracle from the beginning. We noticed the effect almost immediately. He turned back into the sweet young man I had not seen in many years. He started out on 3 mg and then went to 6, which as I understand it, is a "normal" dose (whatever normal means in this world - I of course would not know). He was doing WONDERFUL. His mood was smooth, smooth, smooth. We could actually have a conversation with him without an argument. Before, everything was an argument. Something as simple as take a bath, put on your seatbelt, was a fight. Granted, it did not CURE all of his problems. He still hates school, but his mood was, I fear to use the word, NORMAL. We liked him again. Then, bad luck reared its ugly head. He told me his breasts were sore and I kind of blew it off, thinking well, he's 14, probably just hormones kicking in. Then it kept getting more sore and more sore. Then he told me he could get "white stuff" out of his right breast. I nearly swallowed my tongue. I felt of his breasts and they had huge lumps under them. I called his doctor the next morning. He said the words I feared he would. You have to stop the medicine. It's a side effect, rare, but a side effect. It is making his body produced to much prolactin. He could develop breasts and worse, could be associated with likelihood of causing cancer. I thought I was going to puke. For the first time in several years, he had control. And now it was going to be taken away. I just wanted to melt into a puddle. He said we have to get the lumps down and I can't replace it with anything until that goes down. So now, we are living through a rerun of what we have been living for the last few years. He has returned to the angry, oppositional, irritable, cursing, everyone else's fault young man. And, of course, he got suspended from school. Caused to much distraction. He got three referrals. Mind you, I called them and told them we were having to stop his medicine, and the reasons why. That if they saw he was starting to be disruptive, to please call and I would come and get him and take him out until we could get him started back on something. But of course, they paid no more attention to me this time than they do each time I try to tell them something. Now, they have the brilliant idea that he needs to be "home bound". They will provide a teacher to come to our home for 1 hour three times a week, and he can just do his work here. LIke it's so simple. If they can't get him to work, do they really think I can. Yeah, right. Our appointment with the doctor isn't until next Monday. He said he may try him on Geodon. I've heard some pretty bad stories about it, so I'm kind of leary. I want to see if he will let him take only 3 mg of Invega, since we didn't notice the swelling on the lower dose, but my guess is he will not. So, we are back to step one. He was on Abilify for 2 years. Nothing, only got worse. I keep insisting that he is bipolar, but the doctor said no, he didn't think so. I don't really see mood swings, he just gets stuck in one nasty, irritable, angry mood and can't get out of it. He has a lot of what I call, risk taking behavior. BY that I mean he likes to do things that are dangerous. He likes to ride a dirt bike. Not just ride it, but Jump it over things. Just got him healed up from a bike wreck where he had a dislocated shoulder. He likes to skateboard. Not just skate, but jump and turn summersaults off ramps, with concrete below. He's knocked his front teeth out. That cost us 3,000 to have his mouth redone. His goal is when he can drive (I shudder at the thought) for his license plate to read - 2fast4u. Boy, that's a goal. They know us by name at the emergency room. They call him the BB boy. He's been shot in the elbow with a B-B gun(his FRIEND accidentally shot him). Had to have surgery to get the bb out cause it got infected. Then, another friend shot him in the side of the head. He had to have surgery to have that bb taken out (mind you, none of this is done at our house - always somewhere else). Guess I shoudl just lock him in his room for his own protection. One time this year, he got a pocket knife (which is a big no-no cause he's to forgetful and careless - he might leave it open and sit on it!!!!) He was playing like he was a Ninja and swinging it around and cut his butt open with the knife. We had to take him to the emergency room to have it sewed up. The list goes on and on and on.
Besides being glue to hold this family together, I now have to be a teacher. I need a raise. Benefits too. And to top all of this off, I have a cold.
Ok, now I feel better. Just had to gripe. My dogs have gone to bed so I had no one to listen to me.
My difficult child began taking Invega after trying multiple, multiple, multiple medications. This was a miracle from the beginning. We noticed the effect almost immediately. He turned back into the sweet young man I had not seen in many years. He started out on 3 mg and then went to 6, which as I understand it, is a "normal" dose (whatever normal means in this world - I of course would not know). He was doing WONDERFUL. His mood was smooth, smooth, smooth. We could actually have a conversation with him without an argument. Before, everything was an argument. Something as simple as take a bath, put on your seatbelt, was a fight. Granted, it did not CURE all of his problems. He still hates school, but his mood was, I fear to use the word, NORMAL. We liked him again. Then, bad luck reared its ugly head. He told me his breasts were sore and I kind of blew it off, thinking well, he's 14, probably just hormones kicking in. Then it kept getting more sore and more sore. Then he told me he could get "white stuff" out of his right breast. I nearly swallowed my tongue. I felt of his breasts and they had huge lumps under them. I called his doctor the next morning. He said the words I feared he would. You have to stop the medicine. It's a side effect, rare, but a side effect. It is making his body produced to much prolactin. He could develop breasts and worse, could be associated with likelihood of causing cancer. I thought I was going to puke. For the first time in several years, he had control. And now it was going to be taken away. I just wanted to melt into a puddle. He said we have to get the lumps down and I can't replace it with anything until that goes down. So now, we are living through a rerun of what we have been living for the last few years. He has returned to the angry, oppositional, irritable, cursing, everyone else's fault young man. And, of course, he got suspended from school. Caused to much distraction. He got three referrals. Mind you, I called them and told them we were having to stop his medicine, and the reasons why. That if they saw he was starting to be disruptive, to please call and I would come and get him and take him out until we could get him started back on something. But of course, they paid no more attention to me this time than they do each time I try to tell them something. Now, they have the brilliant idea that he needs to be "home bound". They will provide a teacher to come to our home for 1 hour three times a week, and he can just do his work here. LIke it's so simple. If they can't get him to work, do they really think I can. Yeah, right. Our appointment with the doctor isn't until next Monday. He said he may try him on Geodon. I've heard some pretty bad stories about it, so I'm kind of leary. I want to see if he will let him take only 3 mg of Invega, since we didn't notice the swelling on the lower dose, but my guess is he will not. So, we are back to step one. He was on Abilify for 2 years. Nothing, only got worse. I keep insisting that he is bipolar, but the doctor said no, he didn't think so. I don't really see mood swings, he just gets stuck in one nasty, irritable, angry mood and can't get out of it. He has a lot of what I call, risk taking behavior. BY that I mean he likes to do things that are dangerous. He likes to ride a dirt bike. Not just ride it, but Jump it over things. Just got him healed up from a bike wreck where he had a dislocated shoulder. He likes to skateboard. Not just skate, but jump and turn summersaults off ramps, with concrete below. He's knocked his front teeth out. That cost us 3,000 to have his mouth redone. His goal is when he can drive (I shudder at the thought) for his license plate to read - 2fast4u. Boy, that's a goal. They know us by name at the emergency room. They call him the BB boy. He's been shot in the elbow with a B-B gun(his FRIEND accidentally shot him). Had to have surgery to get the bb out cause it got infected. Then, another friend shot him in the side of the head. He had to have surgery to have that bb taken out (mind you, none of this is done at our house - always somewhere else). Guess I shoudl just lock him in his room for his own protection. One time this year, he got a pocket knife (which is a big no-no cause he's to forgetful and careless - he might leave it open and sit on it!!!!) He was playing like he was a Ninja and swinging it around and cut his butt open with the knife. We had to take him to the emergency room to have it sewed up. The list goes on and on and on.
Besides being glue to hold this family together, I now have to be a teacher. I need a raise. Benefits too. And to top all of this off, I have a cold.
Ok, now I feel better. Just had to gripe. My dogs have gone to bed so I had no one to listen to me.