UPDATE: initial evaluation appointment out of the way

neednewtechnique

New Member
WOW, SO MUCH INFORMATION EXCHANGED TODAY!!! This was only a preliminary meeting where family history was exchanged, as well as a chance for the psychiatrist to make notes about the behavior concerns and to observe my daughter and talk to her a little bit. I was very impressed at the way he and all the members of his staff interacted with her. Everyone in his office was so great! They found ways to make HER feel at ease, and ways to calm my jitters too!

As I have heard, there was a preliminary diagnosis tossed out, of possible Bipolar, very mild ODD, and PTSD (relating to our 13 year old difficult child moving in recently and the abusive nature of their relationship when it started, which is NO LONGER going on, we put a very QUICK stop to that, but apparently it doesn't take much on a fragile 5 year old) and he wants to refer her for a sleep study. Although I have spent enough time watching her sleep to rule OUT sleep apnea as a cause for her inability to sleep, he said there are many other concerns to be discussed and monitored.

He impressed me the most when he told me that he was not interested in putting her on any psychotropic medications until she underwent this sleep study, as some of the issues she is having could be related to any number of sleep disorders that could be fixed with a very light dose of sleeping pill and maybe at MOST a light dosage of a mild mood stabilizer. So I guess what I am thinking is that if we find the sleep study to reveal some problems, then maybe she ISN't bipolar or any of the other things he's mentioned, but if the sleep study doesn't reveal anything, those are the avenues he would like to explore first.

He seems decently competent, and has a decent working schedule, as in, appointments don't take forever, he was able to get her in for her second 45 minute appointment on the 31st of Oct, so again before the end of this month!!
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I'm glad to hear the doctor doesn't want to rush ahead into medications without checking all the possibilities. Sounds good to me. :thumb:
 
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