Update - difficult child in Facility....

bonkers

New Member
difficult child has now been in facility for a week and a half. This is a "treatment center" not a hospitalization... They got his blood on Monday - had to take him to the hospital becuase he refused the staff - but put up no fight for the hospital - he said "It was fun"!!.. BIG SIGH... So they get blood and start him on MPH - Ritilin Short acting on Tueday, and AM and and noon dose of 10 mg each.. Tuesday we arrived in evening (after the medications were susposed to be out of his system) - he was more hyped then we have EVER seen him... all over the place - that evening he actually needed to pout him in a safe room!), distracted, impulsive, by the time we left our heads were swimming and we were fairly well freaked out.... I e-mailed the theripist the next morning with my observations and conserns - after all he was put there for agression and anger - NOT hyperactivity... They are doing hourly reports to doctor on how difficult child is doing on medications... So no response on what they think caused the extreame behavior Tuesday evening by hey - lets put him on an evening dose.. Last night he was almost zombie like, He was withdrawn, had no interest in talking or interacting with us, would not make eye contact... We left feeling angry and depressed... I have e-mailed the theripist today (over 2 hours ago) expreaaing my consern and asking for contact, also requesting he be taken off ritilin and another approch tried, as we did not like what we saw on the two days he was on it! Waiting to hear back!

Can anyone advise? We are feeling scared, lost, ticked off and fustrated....
 

oceans

New Member
Did you get paperwork describing how the treatment center operated? Did they discuss what medications they were going to try with him before they actually tried it? Did they do any psychological testing before they tried a stimulant? Have you spoken to the treating Dr?

I know that at the psychiatric hospital my son was in, we needed to read and sign paperwork and we had a pretty good idea how the place operated. They did psychiatric testing and the DR and Social Worker was always in touch with us whenever they were thinking of a medication change. They explained why they were thinking about the medication change, and asked us permission to try it. We had scheduled meetings to discuss future treatment.

I realize that you are not in a psychiatric hospital, but there must have been paperwork to read or discussion about medication trial, right? Is there a social worker there to talk to?

If you are not happy, talk to the social worker if there is one. There must be someone who works as a sort of advocate for your sons rights. If this seems to be not in your son's best interests, then see about getting him discharged and into a psychiatric hospital instead.
 

bonkers

New Member
I spoke with the therpist, probably the closest person to the advocate you mentioned, and she basically saud she would pass our conserns on to the doctor.. They did talk about the medication trial, and we gave OK for the MPH (ritalin) as a trail, stating we did not agree with it, but we would defer for trial purposes - ONLY because they said it would help anger and agression - correct - they THINK it would help - which is fair - problem is I do not see it helping, but rather mahking him someone he is not - it is scarey... They said they could not address the anexioty (SP) and agression without addressing or trying to rule out ADHD, they said the medications were a way to rule it out...?? Does not make sense to me... That is part of the problem, so much does not make sense to me in the way they are doing this.. I am now waiting for a return call from the doctor...
 

oceans

New Member
Good luck talking to the psychiatrist. I really don't understand how they are thinking. If there are no ADD symptoms what is there to rule out? I never heard of a stimulant addressing the issue of anxiety and aggression....
 
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